《The World of Araven》


 Preface

    The world of Araven''s existence is entirely different from the earth you know.


    To be more accurate, the world of Araven is actually a dimension in of itself. In this dimension there is no such thing as outer space, planets, or stars. The best way to understand it would be to Invision a plane, stretching out flat for infinity. On top of this plane is the world of Araven also stretching out for infinity. It''s surface is not so different from earth, it has normal gravity and a breathable atmosphere, covered in both oceans and continents, bustling with life.


    The world of Araven is filled with energy. It is generated by the plane that the world rests on and flows up to the surface in streams, or mana streams as they are know to the sapient species. This mana is the power to change, it fuels life on the surface, yet it also has the power to twist, distort, and destroy. Sapient life as well as some monsters produce a diluted form of mana, which they can use to change the world to a small extent, which for them is an enormous power.


    An interesting fact about the sky of Araven, is that it actually looks a lot like the sky''s of earth. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the sky is blue by day and black and filled with stars and two moons at night. The difference between Earth''s sky and Araven''s sky is that Earth''s is physical, while Araven''s is not, it is more like and image stretched across the sky. No matter where you are in the world, the sun rises and sets at the same time it does anywhere else.


    Unlike earth, climate is not determined by location on a sphere. Instead it is determined by the flow of mana in an area, different variations lead to different climates; these variables follow a pattern to a certain extent, preventing, say a deset from forming right next to a frozen tundra. Something similar goes for the seasons of this world, they are caused by annual fluctuations in the world''s mana, but follow a similar pattern as earth.


    Being that the world is infinite, all of the landmasses of earth put together are insignificant. The average continent is ten to twenty times that size. The oceans between the continents are on average twice the width of the Pacific ocean. Small kingdoms of Araven would span continents on earth.


    The world of Araven has hundreds of sapient species, but most of these live in little more than roving primitive tribes. The real center of society rests on fifteen adjacent inhabited continents, known to the inhabitants as the central continents.


    Our story begins on the continent of Eirin, which has a land mass of approximately 4,000 million square miles. In the middle of Eirin is a vast forest that is nesstled in between several mountain ranges, it covers nearly 97 thousand square miles. Due to a mana stream that flows right out into the middle of the forest, the life their has been altered to cope, giving rise to monsters of extraordinary strength and magic ability.


    Very few adventurers ever dare to brave the forest, of those that do, very few return. Those that do manage to return do so with many valuables that cannot be obtained otherwise, and become rich enough to live the rest of their lives in luxury.


    <hr>


    Audric Aldrich was the youngest person to be granted the title of archmage by the Eirin continent council of mages. He was the tender age of 79 when he received it. Of course due to being a powerful mage he could expect to live several centuries more. Unlike most mages of this day and age who prefered to become combat mages, Audric, while knowing a thing or two about fighting, much prefered research. His specialty was runes, magic circles, and seals.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    When he was 103, Audric heard rumours that a group of adventurers had discovered an ancient ruin in the middle of the great Eirin forest that, according to the rumors, contained lost magical records. Audric''s researchers blood boiled and quickly goined the next group of SSS ranked adventurers that was headed into the forest.


    What Audric was not expecting to find in the forest was a lesser dragon that had been mutated by the high atmospheric mana. SSS ranked adventurers would normally be able to handle a lesser dragon without a problem, bit the mutations gave this dragon some nasty abilities that no one was expecting. Audric was heavily wounded by the encounter before a wild tail swing sent him flying miles through the forest before he landed in... A set of ruins.


    Audric was knocked out by the blow and lostconsciousness before he ever landed. While he was laying in the ruins injured, the atmospheric mana began to seep into him, without hisconsciousness to resist the forien mana, the mana had free reign over his body.


    When he awoke, Audric had already completed his transformation. Looking at his hands, his skin had become a ghastly gray, when he tried to go outside the ruins, he burned in the sun. He still had a heartbeat yet showed characteristics of an undead, he had become a half-dead if you will.


    Audric knew that he could never return to human society while showing even the faintest signs of having the curse of the undead, so he resolved himself to explore the ruins he had landed in. The first thing he had discovered was that the monsters of the forest did not come near the ruins, the next was a library filled with tomes, codexes, and scrolls all placed under preservation spells.


    After many weeks studying the ancient texts and learning the language they where written in, Audric discovered that whoever had written these was studying a new form of summoning magic. All forms of summoning magic known to Audric and to the weighter required the castor to supply a steady stream of mana to the summon to hold it in the physical world. This new summoning would, hypothetically, snatch aconsciousness from another world and allow it to build a body out of matter from this plane of existence.


    The man who had written this had been quite close to finishing his research, and Audric was burning to complete it. So he spent the next several years here working to finish it. By the time he turned 122, Audric had finished the research and was ready to begin.


    <hr>


    In the central courtyard of an overgrown ruin, a bearded old man with sickly gray skin was fervently finishing a giant drawing on the floor. The drawing was a circle that filled the entire courtyard, nearly 30 feet by 30 feet square. In this circle was thousands of intricate runes, all interconnected by a complex pattern of lines.


    Once he finished the final details, he gave the circle a once over before rushing out of the courtyard. He came back hauling the carcasses of various animals into the center of the circle one by one. One he had a decent sized mound, he rushed once more to the edge of the circle. He kneeled down and began to channel his mana into it. Once it had enough to start up, the magic circle began to draw directly from the natural mana in the air and earth.


    Space began to shimmer and warp within the circle, energy cracking and popping within it.


    "It''s working." Exclaimed the old man with a grin.


    The corpses in the center of the circle burst apart into millions of fine pieces, flowing upwards into a hovering orb of blood, bone, and flesh that was the size of five hourses. The remaining chunks melted into the orb turning it into a reddish brown. Slowly the orb began to change shape and shrink, gradually it began to take on a solid form before completely changing into the newborn being. Its purpose fulfilled, the magic circle shut down and dropped the newborn several feet onto the ground.


    The old Archmage stood with jaw hanging open at the sight before him.


    In the middle of a vast magic circle sat a small child.


    "What the fuck is this?" Shouted the archmage.

 Chapter 1. Arrival

    My life on Earth ended in me gallantly giving my life to save others.


    Just kidding. That sure seems to be the popular thing among ''transported to fantasy'' type novels, but in actuality the way I left earth was a bit more embarrassing. You see I was in the bathroom... Reading a web novel on my phone... While taking a dump...


    Yep worst way to be summoned into another world. I was just sitting there minding my own business when all the sudden I was assaulted by a mind crushing headache, and then there was a sensation like my brain was being ripped out, and that was it. No magic circle or anything.


    Now I didn''t know I was being summoned at the time. The thoughts running through my head at the time were somewhere along the lines of ''the fuck is this....'' and then next thing I knew I found myself falling on my behind.


    The first thing that meets my eyes is a man, approximately 40 with graying black hair and a scruffy fully gray beard that makes him look like an old geezer. The strangest thing about him is his sickly gray skin.


    Looking around I see that I am in a large courtyard sitting on top of what I can only guess is a magic circle. The courtyard is surrounded by overgrown gray stone buildings, and the sky is heavily shaded by a canopy of trees, some form of giant oak by the looks of it.


    Old man grayskin exclaims something in a language I don''t understand and has a look of surprise plastered all over his face. He slowly walks over to me and stands right in front of me. I decide that I should probably greet him so I try and stand up, only to notice that he is towering over me. Was this guy a giant of some sort? Or did I become a midget?


    I look at my hands to see if they hold any answers. I noticed several things: 1. My skin tone is now different. I had always been whiter than I would have liked and got sunburn pretty easy, but now I had an almost olive skin tone. 2. My nails had turned solid white, instead of the usual transparent pink. And last but not least 3. My hands where now those of a child. MY HANDS WHERE THOSE OF A CHILD! Not that I wanted to get any older, but I didn''t really want to get any younger either. Seems I will have to go through puberty again.


    Looking further down past my hands I took a look at my body. It looks like my body has reverted back to that of a six year old. Damn, seems I am going to have to wait awhile for my... Feet... To grow back to original size. WAIT A SECOND, I WAS NAKED! I swiftly covered the important spot with my hands and looked expectantly at old man grayskin. He quickly pulled off his own ragged gray cloak and placed it over my shoulders. Underneath he had been wearing what appeared to be blue wizard robes.


    Old grayskin pointed to himself and said "Audric Aldrich"


    To show I understand I pointed to him and say "Audric". He nods and points to me.


    My original name is not so good for a fantasy world hero, so I think I am going to make one up. Even though I have never heard the language he spoke before, it seemed quite similar to a Latin based language, similar to the romance languages. And his own name seemed similar to an English name... So let''s see... Maybe something Norse sounding?


    I point to myself and say "Ambrjrn"This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Damn, that might not sound as cool as I thought it would. I have an idea though, if this Audric fellow is really the man who painfully yanked me from earth and everything I know and love, I was going to bestow on him a fate worse than death...


    Pointing at the old man, I said "papa"


    Silence, the old man''s face slowly shifted to one of surprise, and then sorrow. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh of acceptance. Reaching over he ruffled my hair. I tried to give him an innocent wide toothy grin that made my ears lay back.


    Wait a moment. Why do my ears have a sensation like laying back? Reaching up with my hands, I began to feel around my ears. I began to panic a bit; my ears were different! Old man Audric seemed to understand that I was surprised about something, so he stretched out his right had which had a golden ring on the ring finger. Tiny letter like symbols began to glow blue on the ring before *poof* a highly polished metal plate appeared in his hand. Now that was pretty neat, but now was not the time to be concerned with that.


    He held the plate out for me to see. It did not have a perfect reflection, but it was enough for me to make out the important details. First off was my hair, it was now as white as snow, which stood in stark contrast to my now tan skin. As for my eyes, they were now a icy blue, almost silver. But the two most important details were 1. My facial structure had completely changed, higher cheek bones, squarer jaw, thin white eyebrows, and an almost Greek nose. But the biggest change, number 2. Was that my ears were now TRIANGLES!


    Now you may be thinking of elf ears, but that was not it at all. More like a small triangle sticking straight out of the side of my head. Or maybe it would be better to describe it as a half cone shape. What is more, is I can move them, up, down, backwards, and even forwards a short ways.


    I sank to the floor and put my head in my hands. I had never put much importance on appeance, and it wasn''t like my new appearance was bad looking or anything, but loosing my appearance was a bit like loosing apart of myself. I needed a few moments to process this.


    Old man Audric crouched down beside me and waited. Several minutes passed before Audric stood back up.


    "Ambrjrn... ?????? ???? ????? ???"


    Looking up at him, I pointed to my now triangular ears and said:


    "[I don''t understand]"


    Audric trued again in what sounded like a different language, once again I gestured that I did not understand. He began to go through a repertoire of languages, some sounded like they could have come from earth, others not so much. But I did not understand any of them, so he finally gave a sigh of defeat. Audric simply gestured for me to follow him. I got up and followed after him, the bottom of the oversized cloak trailing after me.


    We entered one of the old buildings that made up the walls of the courtyard, inside we walked along a corridor for a short while before Audric turned into a doorway to the right. Inside was what one must have served as a gathering hall. Now it seemed to be Audric''s living quarters.


    On my right in a corner against the far wall was a pile of fabric and firs, probably his bed. In the left corner was a small fireplace made out of hardened clay that had its chimney running out of the ceiling. All along the left wall was stacked firewood, and scattered all across the floor were scrolls and books, arranged as if someone was studying them.


    Audric gestured for me to sit down on the pile of firs, which I did, and then he proceeded over to the fireplace. He started to gather smaller pieces of wood and place them in the fireplace, once done he held our his hand and a small red flame appeared before it. I was excited, but not entirely surprised after seeing the storage ring.


    Before he does anything with the hovering flame, Audric turns to me and points to it, and says a single word. He then spreads it across the wood in the fireplace and steps back. He then gestures to the flames that are now consuming the wood and says the same word again. I get the idea and point to the fire while repeating the word. Audric smiles and nods.


    After that Audric removed food and a pot from his storage ring and proceeded to cook some stew. It seems that I was summoned late in the evening and it was already growing dark outside. We ate, he spread out some firs for me to sleep on, and thus my first day away from earth ended.

 Chapter 2. Learning magic

    It has been 22 days since I came to this world. What have I been doing all this time you ask? Well, I wake up in the morning, I eat the breakfast Audric makes, he teaches me the language until noon, we eat lunch, and then we study the language some more until evening, and then we eat and go to bed. That has been my daily schedule for the last three weeks.


    Audric has been doing a bit more than that though, for example he used the material from some old cloth clothes he had stored in his ring to make me something to wear. They are not the best clothes, his sewing skill being sub par, but they work better than the giant cloak that drags the ground when I walk in it.


    How am I doing in my study of the language? Well I can now name most anything you can point a finger at, and have moved on to learning idea words and how to build simple phrases. I can get now get simple ideas across, and can understand simple sentences. He had also been teaching me reading and writing, but I was still a novice at it.


    This morning my routine changed a bit from the usual. After finishing breakfast in our shared ruin room Audric says to me:


    "Ambrjrn, I am walking to weigh your mana."


    Hmm... Maybe that one word means going instead of walking, and the other one is measure? But that is besides the point, it came! The fated measuring of mana!


    Audric waved his hand and brought forth a square transparent crystal that was slightly larger than a dice. He held it with both hands and the clutched it to his chest. After holding it for a few seconds the crystal winked white light twice and he pulled it away from his chest. Floating inside the crystal were several symbols that I recognized as what Audric had pointed out to be numbers, I did not know what the exact number means, but it looked like a large number.


    Next he held it out to me and I took it and repeated the motion, holding it to my chest. I felt a faint tingling sensation were I held the crystal, and after a few seconds it flashed twice. Pulling it away I saw it displaying a different number. Audric looked a bit surprised at the sight of it.


    "Good, better than some ????... Err... Middle mages."


    He took back the crystal and with a poof it had disappeared back into his ring. Then another yellowish shard shaped crystal appeared. He handed it to me and said:


    "This crystal shows your ??????.... What magic you will be good at."


    I nodded in understanding, probably that word means attribute. I hopped I didn''t get stuck with some attribute that was shunned, like death or something. I took the crystal and did like I did with the other one. I felt a similar tingling sensation and the shard began to glow. I held it out to see it. It was glowing with white light. What did that mean? Was it light or holy attribute?


    "What is white... Attribute?" I said, trying out the new word.


    "White is no attribute. All mages can use all magic, but those with a attribute are better in that one kind."


    So it was a relief on my part to know I would still be able to use magic, but I was kind of disappointed to not have an attribute. Audric continued his lesson.


    "To use magic, a person must feel their mana, move it where they need it, and then make it do what they want. First we need to get you to feel your mana. I will put a small amount of my mana in you so you feel what mana is and then you look for your own, you understand?"This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    I nodded. Audric grasped my arm, and I soon felt a strange sensation travel up my arm. A bit like a fog inside my body. Soon enough I began to notice that I had my own pool of the ''fog'' in my chest. That would be my mana pool.


    "I can feel my mana pool."


    "That was fast. Now try willing the mana to move around. It takes most people several hours to get their mana to move." He said as he let go of my arm.


    I closed my eyes and began. I willed a small portion to move to my hand, and the mana went to my hand. I began moving it to all different parts of my body with ease. It seemed as simple a breathing. For the real test I tryed focusing it above my open palm, surprisingly that to was done with ease. I began to manipulate it into different shapes, even though mana is invisible I could feel it as I made it into spheres, hexagons, and squares.


    As I was manipulateing my mana, I began to notice all the free flowing mana around me. It was in everything, the air and the earth, like a constantly flowing river, and unlike Audric''s mana which felt foreign in my body, this natural mana felt the same as my own. I began to try and manipulate it as well, seeing if I could draw off the endless torrent of mana all around me, and it obeyed, flowing into my waiting hand. I absorbed some of it and it filled my mana pool as if it had always been there, and at the same time even making it bigger.


    I was ecstatic, if I could use this mana normally, than I would have a limitless supply. Could this be my cheat skill? I would have to question Audric. I turned to him who had already laid down on his firs to wait for me to practice.


    "Umm... Audric, what is this mana in the air?"


    His eyes snapped open at that, and he quickly sat up.


    "Hoo... You managed to feel that? Not many can so soon. That is known as ?????. ( ether will be used for lack of an English word) Now I told you that all life makes mana. The stronger the life, the more pure the mana. The world also makes mana, it is the purest form of mana, and it is everywhere. But people can not use it normally, although some use it to power magic circles, but that is a ????? ?????????"


    So it really was a unique ability. This really does make up for not having an attribute. But I am pretty sure I got the hang of moving my mana, so on to the next question.


    "How do I make my mana do what I want?"


    Audric looked at me quizzically, clearly thinking that I was asking before I had figured out how to move my mana, yet he answered me anyway.


    "You move your mana where you need it, and then you ???????" he taps his head with his finger "what you want. Then you will it to be."


    So I need to imagine what I want right? So let''s give it a try. I start by drawing some of the either from the air and from it into a softball sized sphere above my right hand. Then I try to imagine a flame, what makes a flame? It''s air, fuel, and heat right? So the either is the fuel, and it also vibrates the molecules to create heat, while sucking in air from the surroundings. Next is willing it to be and presto! A white sphere of raging fire appeared before my hand, spewing heat throughout room in a shockwave, blackening nearby papers on the floor, while also sucking in large quantities of air. Old man Audric nearly jumped out of his skin.


    "What in ???????? ???? is that?"


    I was impressed by the fireball I had produced. Apparently when I had imagined it absorbing nearby air, it sucked in large quantities, producing a white flame, which if I remembered correctly was the hottest know flame back on Earth. It seems that I had subconsciously formed a barrier of ether around myself when I felt the heat from the flame, a testimony to how natural the mana manipulation came to me, but as it was hastily put up the heat was still getting to me, so I quickly put it out.


    "Such a flame... Like the core of a powerful flame ?????????...."


    Audric was shocked to say the least. He looked at me with wide eyes filled with mixture of emotions.


    "I thought for sure I felt the ether coverage to fuel that flame..."


    "Well... I kind of can use the ether..."


    "WHAT! How is that... Wait... Now that I think about it the summoning circle was powered by either... Perhaps that is the reason? Well one thing is for sure, we have to continue your magic training. We will make you the an archmage in no time!"


    And thus began my instruction into magic.

 Chapter 3. My education continues

    After my little show with the fireball, Audric got very excited about teaching me magic. He gave me a brief speach about how imagining what you want your magic to manifest as is only part of what is required. Only through practice can you get your magic to match up to what you imagine.


    I had a thery as to why this was. All through his speach, Audric always talked about imagining the end result, he never mentioned imagining the process. In some of the web novels I have read, imagining the process brings better results. It was possible that it was the same here, which I can only determine through experimentation.


    Audric ended his speach by telling me were running low on food and that he was going to go into the forest to obtain more. He wanted me to continue to practice while he was gone, without destroying the ruin.


    I waited until he was gone to begin. I held out both hands flat Infront of me and formed a baseball sized sphere of ether over each. For the one over my left hand, I imagined a water ball, a small bead of water formed at the center of the sphere and over the course of a few seconds it filled up to the baseball size. For my right hand I imagined the ether drawing moisture out of the surrounding air to form the waterfall. When I manifested that, the waterfall formed almost instantly, in contrast to the one over my left hand.


    It seems that if you have a clear picture of how you want to obtain the water, the effects are much faster. Since I had two waterballs available, I decided to move my experiments on to making ice. For the one on my left I simply imagined it freezing solid. When manifested it took nearly a minute to form and appeared quite brittle. For the one over my right, I imagined the water molecules slowing down and linking together to form a crystal structure. Instantly the waterball turned to a solid blue ice.


    To test the quality, I smashed the two ice balls together. The left side one shattered into thousands of pieces while the right side one remained unharmed. This confirmed my hypothesis, imagining the process is better than imagining the effects.


    For the next several hours I practiced every effect I could imagine, creating a gust of wind, drawing up dust in the ruins to make a block of earth, making a cloud, making electricity jump between my fingers, forming ether into shields, water blades, healing after I cut myself with said blades... And everything else I could imagine. And the best part is that I did not even have to use any of my mana, the flowing river of ether provided me with non stop energy to work with.


    Audric came back about an hour after lunch with fresh woodland vegetables and a deer.


    "Audric, can I set up the fire?"


    "Sure, I will clean the deer while you do."


    I decided to give a spell idea I had a try. I sat down across the room from the fireplace and stacked wood. I gathered ether into a bubble around a single piece of firewood and solidified it into a shield, then I lifted up. The piece of firewood looked as if it had been yanked up into the air and was hovering there. I moved the shield into the fireplace and then dispelled it, the firewood dropped in.


    I had just developed telekinesis for dummies. Audric was out cleaning the deer so he didn''t get to see it unfortunately, I wounder what he would think of it? Using the same method I moved the rest of the firewood I needed into the fireplace. Then I used ether to heat it up until it cought fire.


    While I sat back waiting for Audric, I realized something. I knew next to nothing about this world, the language barrier had kept me from ever asking about it. I knew it was a fantasy world, ya know because of the magic, but was it a humans only fantasy world? Would my new appearance stand out or were there enough sapient species to for no one to care? What continent where we on? Did this world even have continents? Now that I had an understanding of the language I had so many questions I needed to ask.


    Later, after Audric returned and we began to eat out late lunch, I decided to ask him the questions I wanted to know.


    "Umm... What is this world called?"


    "Oh... Ah it is called Araven."


    "OK, so how many [continents] are there? Or rather... Land masses?"


    Audric nodded and seemed to get what I was getting at.


    "We know of over two hundred, but only fifteen are populated. Right now we are on the ????????? of Eirin."


    Two hundred! Either there is a misunderstanding or this word is fukin huge! Now that I thank about it, aren''t fantasy worlds usually bigger than earth?Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    "How many different types of peoples are there?"


    "You mean besides humans? Several hundred types that I know of."


    Several hundred! And that just the ones he knows of! This is awesome! Elf babes here I come! Maybe I should start a collection... AHEM... I mean harem. Actually that doesn''t sound any better... MOVING ON.


    "Could you tell me about some of them please?"


    "Ok then, the second most populous people behind humans would be the halflings. They look just like a human except smaller. Then there are the ????? (the word he used here sounded suspiciously like ''elves'' so that is what I am assuming he meant), they are thin and agile, have long pointed ears. The high elves are usually light skinned and have blonde hair, but there are also many different ?????? of elves, like dark elves, shadow elves, ?????? elves... Well you probably get the picture.


    The there are the dwarves, who are short and stocky. They usually wear a beard and live underground. Excellent metal workers to." Audric paused to take a breath, " let''s see... There are also the beast peoples, who have ears like an animal and a tail. Some have more animal qualies than that but that is the minimum. The Amol look like humans but have four arms. The Oni usually have red skin and one or two horns. And I could go on, but those are some of the more populated peoples."


    This was amazing! So many different races to find hot babes from! OK, OK jokes aside, I was now very eager to get out of this forest and to a city. I decided to ask about it.


    "Audric, can we go to a city?"


    "That would not be so easy. We are close to the center of the great forest of Eirin, it stretches out for thousands of metras (a unit of distance similar to a mile) in all directions. The dense ether in the forest has turned many of its animals into dangerous monsters. What is more, it would be dangerous if I left this forest, you see this gray skin? The ether here changed me. I would be shunned or even hunted down by society."


    Well that is depressing, it seems that it is going to be some time yet before I can leave. With that our conversation lapsed into silence. I spent the rest of the afternoon parctacing magic under the watchful eye of Audric. Soon my first day studying magic came to an end.


    <hr>


    Unbeknownst to Ambrjrn, while he was sleeping, his subconscious began to inhale ether, it moved throughout his body nourishing it before it finally entered his mana pool and expanded it. His subconscious continued to do this all night.


    <hr>


    The next morning when I tryed to get up, I ended up tripping. When I got to my feet, everything looked ever so slightly smaller. Audric who was already awake looked over and gasped.


    "You have grown! At least an etera (inch) and a half!"


    I really had grown taller during the night. For the first time since I came here I felt joyous that I might not have to go through childhood all over again. Audric spent the next half hour measuring me trying to determine my exact rate of growth. It also occured to me that this message I would need new clothes soon.


    Once my the excitement from my sudden growth spurt wore off, we finished breakfast and moved on to the next step of magic training.


    "You seem to be able to use your imagination for magic casting far better than even some masters I know of, but there is still a lot you need to learn. So next up it chanting. Chanting can be done in any language and is usually done for two reasons. The first you don''t really need, it is to strengthen your cast, for example most novices can only cast a small weak fireball, but when they chant a description of how they want their fireball to be, it allows them to make a stronger fireball."


    "The next use of chanting is for more advanced magic users. It is for when there is something that is difficult to fully imagine, chanting allows their subconscious so form the full picture they need to cast the spell."


    "Now chanting can not be used if you do not understand the concept behind it. You can''t just repeat the words you heard someone else chant and expect to get results."


    OK, sounds easy enough. Let''s give it a try. I stood in the center of the room and gathered ether around my right hand.


    "[Flaming fist]"


    My hand was enveloped it red flames that swirled around it but spread no further than my wrist. The concept that came to mind when I said flaming fist included the flames not burning myself, which is rather important for something like this.


    "Ooh, the flaming fist, very popular among fire mages."


    Ok, so it wasn''t that original, but I now knew that I could do even more now than with just my imagination. Well its time to see the limits of what I can do. I dispelled the flaming fist and began to gather ether around Audric.


    "Hey now, what are you doing with all this ether around me?"


    "[Dispell curse!]"


    Nothing happened. Apparently this wasn''t a curse.


    "[Dispell mutation]"


    All my memories of human anatomy and genetics rushed through my head in that single moment. Large amounts of ether began to rush into Audric and he dropped to the floor and started spasming.


    "[Oh shit oh shit oh shit]"


    I rushed over to Audric an rolled him on his side, you where supposed to roll a person on their side when they spasamed right?


    "[I''m sorry old man, but please don''t die on me!]"


    Audric slowly stopped shaking and lay still. He was still breathing, so just unconscious. I noticed that his gray skin was slowly turning back to a normal human pink. Holy crap it worked!


    It took nearly an hour before Audric woke back up, and by that time he had tribes fully back to a normal human skintone. He sat up and slowly shook his head.


    "It feels like an ork decided to use my head as a drum. What happened?"


    "Try looking at your hands."


    Audric looked down at his now thin, fleshy pink hands. He scrambled to his feet.


    "What did you do to me boy?!?"


    "I just used a bit of [dispell mutation]"


    Audric immediately held out his hand and began to focus. A small golden orb appeared above his hand.


    "I can use holy magic again! I am cured!"


    Audric may have went a little crazy after that, throwing a celebration to his cure. Apparently he thought he would have to spend the rest of his life like that, and live in seclusion.


    Once he finally calmed down he turned to me and said:


    "Now let''s get out of this fucking forest."

 Chapter 4.

    "I get that you are eager to go back to civilization now that you won''t start a [witch] hunt, but didn''t you say that there was thousands of metras of forest filled with dangerous monsters we would have to cross?"


    Audric paused for a moment before replying.


    "True, I did say that, but I can just teleport us to my house in the capital."


    "WHAT! You can do that? Why didn''t you say so sooner?"


    "I am Archmage Audric Aldrich, master of magic circles, of course I can teleport several thousand metras!"


    I let out a long sigh, was he pranking me by not telling me we could leave in a instant and letting me believe we would be stuck in this forest for years? I decided that it would be best to just let it go and rather focus on getting out of here faster.


    "So how long until we can leave?"


    Audric thought for a moment, scratching his scraggly beard as he did so.


    "Well, I am running low on crystal dust, which is a key ingredient for the ink used in magic circles... But that is easily found growing in the forest. After I gather that, to mix up the ink and make the magic circle will probably take me about a day... And there is still preparations we need to do, I have to store all of the research in these ruins into my ring, and you and I both need to clean up a bit... Need to shave this beard of mine... Girls in the capital don''t like beards. So while I go out today to get the crystal, you can gather all the scrolls and books into a pile that I can store when I get back. We will use this evening to get cleaned up, and then I will use all of tomorrow make the teleportation circle. We can leave the day after tomorrow."


    There isn''t much left about that day for me to tell you. Audric left, I gathered up the research materials into a small mountain in one of the empty rooms. Audric had a bath set up in one of the smaller rooms in the ruin before I ever got there, so that evening we took turns bathing. Audric shaved his beard, which transformed him from a old man into a middle aged man. I had not cut my hair since I got to this world, so it had grown rather long, I got my first haircut. And after that we went to sleep.


    <hr>


    The next morning, I awoke to find Audric sitting nearby stareing at me. Not creepy at all.


    "Good morning..."


    Audric moves a bit like he has just been pulled like deep thought.


    "You grew again while you slept. I was observing to see why."


    "I see..."


    "When you got here you looked to be about six years old... Yesterday about like a seven year old... Now like a tall eight year old. It seems that while you sleep, you draw ether into yourself, it seems that is what is fueling your fast growth."


    That much, a year a night? Wait, didn''t that mean I would be an old man in a few weeks? This is serious! But my fears seemed to be unfounded as Audric continued.


    "I have seen something similar in children born with large mana pools, they grow faster then normal, but once they reach adulthood their aging slows to a crawl. The usually end up live several centuries longer than mages who don''t start expanding their pool untill they are adults. Of course I have never seen someone grow so fast... Usually they grow into adults only a year or two before other kids their age."


    "How old is their body when they slow their aging?"


    "They usually have the body of someone in their late teens or early twenties."


    OK, that doesn''t seem to bad. Let''s just hope it works the same for me. But now on to another important issue. What am I going to do for clothes. The clothes Audric made for me were already tight yesterday, now they for sure wouldn''t fit.


    "What am I supposed to do about clothes?"


    "We can buy many clothes in the capital, but until then I suppose you will have to make do with the clothes I have."


    He waved his hand a bit and some simple cloth clothes popped out of his ring. He then told me that he would be preparing the ink and then left.


    After he left I examined the clothes he had left behind. I selected the smallest shirt I could find and desided to wear it as a tunic. The underwear I had worn to sleep last night were already to tight, so had to select one of the pairs (they were all clean thankfully) and use a leather strap to tie it like a belt.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Thus (somewhat) clothed, I whent off to watch Audric work. I found him in large empty room that he had told me he was going to use for the magic circle before. I began to observe Audric work, and he was kind enough to explain what he was doing while he worked.


    He explained that there are many different recipes for magic circle ink, and each produced a different quality ink. The recipe he was using now was one of his own design. Powdered crystal dust, mercury (living silver as they called it), ash from a tree that had grown in a ether rich area, and extracts from various rare herbs. Apparently this recipe was considered one of high quality, and thus the reason Audric could use it for his teleportation circle.


    It took him about an hour to mix up the nessisary amount. Then he began on the circle, begining in the center of the room and working outwards. The runes that Audric used came from a ancient dead language. Similar to how scientists use Latin because it will not change now that no one uses it in everyday speech, mages use this language because no one uses it anymore, and will therefore not change. The reason this is desirable is because the meaning of what is written must have a connection to what is cast on it. Because of this there magic circles will continue to function for years.


    Now that Audric was focused on making the magic circle, I couldn''t interrupt him with questions and break his concentration. So I practiced magic untill the evening when he finally came back out of the room and announced he was done.


    When we sat down for our final evening meal here, I decided to inquire about what I should expect from the capital and what I should know.


    "Well..." Began Audric "The capital is called Earlton, and is the capital of the kingdom of Albin. The kingdoms northern border is the forest of Eirin, to its west is the Empire of Cartinal. To its east is the Theocracy of Er-ishanal. It''s southern border runs all the way to the ocean. The capital is located near the center of center of the kingdom. The king was old when I left, so there is probably a new king by now."


    After that the conversation went on mostly about social customs that will be expected and the dos and don''ts of the law. Most were not to different from what I was familiar with, but some were different, like giving respect to nobles and knights and whatnot.


    Now that our preparations were finished, all that was left was to wait for tomorrow morning.


    <hr>


    The next morning I woke up to find I had grew again. By this point it wasn''t even that surprising. Now I looked about nine or ten. If I kept this up I would be fully grown in about ten or eleven days. If I was back on Earth I would be undoubtedly setting a new world record for fastest growing kid.


    We opted to not eat breakfast and rather wait and get something other than wilderness stew in the capital. I could still wear what I wore yesterday, so I did not have to worry about that. We made one final sweep through the ruins looking for anything we may want to bring before we finally went to the magic circle.


    This was it. Audric and I stood on top of the circle and prepared to leave. This would be my first time teleporting, so I took slow deep breaths to keep myself calm. Audric checked to make sure I was ready before he began to pour mana into the circle. The runes and lines in the circle lit up bright blue, an arch of blue light formed over us before we were consumed by light all around.


    The first thing I noticed when the light cleared was that we were standing on top of a coffee table, surrounded be old fashioned couches. We appeared to be in a living room. The second thing I noticed was that the ether here was a lot less. It was still a lot more than I knew how to use at one time, but still less.


    "I am fairly sure I left this room empty before." Mumbled Audric.


    To my right, a pair of dark wooden double doors burst open and a man that seemed to be in his late twenties strode in. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.


    "Who the fuck just teleported into my home?"


    Audric turned and looked him straight in the eye, the man froze and instantly pailed.


    "M- M- Master Aldrich!"


    "Whose house did you say this was?"


    "It''s yours master! I was just keeping it safe in your absence!"


    "Nonsince, you just grabbed a free mansion when you thought I was gone for good." He turned to me, "Ambrjrn, meet my apprentice Porten Fabinus."


    "Actually... Since you were gone I have become a court mage."


    Stepping off the coffee table that we had landed on, Audric looked at Porten with a small bit of disbelief.


    "Have you really improved enough to be hired by the crown while I was gone, or has the standard for court mages fallen?"


    "Hmpf," Porten turned to me, "Hello there, Ambrjrn was it? How did you fall in with the likes of him?" He asked with a head nod in Audric''s direction.


    This was a perfect opportunity! I can''t let this pass up.


    "That''s because he''s my daddy." I replied in the most childish voice I could muster, which was pretty easy with my underdeveloped vocal cords.


    Porten''s deep blue eyes opened up wide and he slowly turned to Audric.


    "Master, were you not the one who told me I must always use a contraceptive spell? What happened to that?"


    Audric''s face grew red in embarrassment as he frantically waved his hands in a ''thats not it'' gesture. GOT HIM!


    "Mama said she had to beg him for fourtey days before he finally let her have me. Whatever that means."


    Audric''s face grew redder and Porten let out a chuckle.


    "So even an Archmage will surrender to the will of a woman. Well it''s probably none of my business to enquire any further. After using up enough mana to fuel a teleportation circle you must be famished. Shall I have my ????? prepare you something to eat?"


    Audric simply nodded his reply and Porten left the room. Once he was gone I turned to Audric, who was now examining the changes made to the room, to enquire about the word I didn''t recognize.


    "Audric, what did that word he used mean? ?????, was it?"


    "Hmm, it means a person who is owned by another, and is made to work for them."


    A slave! What the hell! That evil... Wait, I have to remind myself that this is no longer earth, and let''s face it, nearly every fantasy web novel I have read had some form of slavery in it, so I should have expected this. Now the question is, do I try and change society? Do I ignore it? Or should I go with the flow and try and change my world view?


    My thoughts are interrupted by Audric beckoning me to follow him to the dining room.

 Chapter 5. The capital

    On the way to the dining room I was abled to observe the interior of the mansion. It appeared to be made of stone and wood, but of a very high quality. The furniture I saw was made out of polished wood and either leather or high quality fabrics. I also saw several paintings around and was surprised by the proper use of scale, something that was lacking in the middle ages of my own planet. The lighting for the building came from sconces powered by crystals that emitted white light.


    In the dining room I found that the dining table was massive, it had twenty five chairs surrounding it, and it appeared to be made from a single giant piece of wood. I could hardly imagine the size of the tree it must have come from.


    Porten was already sitting to the right of the head of the table waiting for us. Audric sat at the head of the table and I sat to his left. Apparently we were to wait for our food.


    Porten seemed to fidget for a moment before he finally worked up the courage to ask a question.


    "Master, I really must know... Who was the woman who finally was able to get you to have a child with her?"


    Audric simply sighed before giving me forlorn look. He turned back to Porten.


    "Ambrjrn was pranking the both of us. He isn''t really my son, he''s a summon."


    Porten''s eyes grew ever so slightly larger at that comment.


    "A summon? But he looks flesh and blood to me... And I don''t sense any mana between you and him."


    "What do you think I have been doing all these years... I was researching a new form of summoning. He is as apart of this world as we are now."


    Porten''s eyes grew even larger before his attention snapped over to me, who had been watching how this conversation would play out.


    "If that is true... That would mean you are from another plane right?!? What is it like!"


    I tested my hand on my chin and put on a ''deep thought'' face. After a few seconds I replied.


    "Hmm, well I suppose the best way to describe it is a giant tree, and each leaf is a continent..."


    Porten''s jaw dropped, not holding a single bit of doubt in his face.


    "Could such a place really exist?..."


    Audric stepped in at this point, "Of course not. He is just proving you to be the fool I always suspected you to be."


    "Hehe, Audric is right. But really my world is quite different, society focuses on technology there. Mm.. humans are the only species there. From what Audric has described I would say my world is a lot smaller than this one."


    "Humans the only species... But you are... Well... Not human."


    "You think I didn''t notice that? Although I don''t really mind, it offers a nice change of pace."


    Before our conversation had an opportunity to continue, the doors to the dining room where opened and a man that I could only describe as a butler walked in pushing a cart of food.


    He was an older man, balding and with a wrinkled face. His attire was similar to an old fashioned butler uniform, even coming with the white gloves. One thing I did notice was that he had small black tattoos around his neck. He must be the slave mentioned earlier, not exactly what I was expecting.


    From the cart the butler/slave unloaded generous amounts of food before us. Eggs both fried and boiled, many kinds of bread, sausages, some form of custard, and a selection of fruit juices.


    Our previous conversation was quickly forgotten due to both me and Audric having nothing but stew made from things found in the forest. We quickly began to prepare plates with samples of everything on it.


    The fried eggs were prepared similar to an omelet, lightly salted with a mixture of seasonings I did not recognize, mixed with finely diced chunks of what I assumed to be peppers and bits of meat. Heavenly.


    When I bit into a boiled egg, I found that it had been partially stuffed with cheese and was lightly salted. It appeared the others ate theirs along with a slice of reddish brown bread. I decided to give it a try and found that it complimented the salty cheesy flavor of the egg with an ever so slight sweetness. I am pretty sure my mouth is melting from the goodness.


    I moved on to a slice of dark brown, almost black bread along with some of the sausages. The black/brown bread had a texture and taste similar to whole grain bread, and the sausage was an explosion of meat and spices.


    To wash it all down I decided on an orange colored juice from the several selections. I was greeted with a smooth sweet flavor completely different from what one would expect from a orange drink.


    After several minutes of eating I leaned back in my chair completely stuffed. Glancing over at Audric, judging by the empty plates before him, I would say he had a similar reaction to my own. Patting his stomach, he let out a long content sigh.


    Poten, who had excersized a bit more self control, stood up.


    "As much as I would love to stick around, I have leave for the court in a few minutes, so if you will excuse me."


    Audric added "And I should probably report to the magic counsel, let them know I am alive and all that." He turned to me. "The magic counsel doesn''t allow non members into their building, and considering how long I have been gone, this is going to take all day. So you will need to make your own plans for the rest of the day."


    "I would like to explore the city if possible."


    "If that''s what you want to do I will give you some coin to spend and a honing crystal so you can find your way back."


    After that Porten and Audric left the room, awhile later Audric returned with a bag of coins and two crystals. He then explained the monetary system and how crystals worked, he also gave me a brief description of the layout of the city. He then bid me farewell and left.


    The crystals where linked to each other. I would leave one here and take the other with me. The mana within the crystal always pulls in the direction of the other, so all I had to do was sense the mana within and follow it back.


    The money was a simple system that would make the metric system proud. It started with the copper bit coin, which was about enough to buy a single piece of common fruit. Ten copper bits made a full copper, ten of those made a silver bit, ten of those made a full silver and so on through gold and a green metal Audric called Burium. Even larger purchases used a red crystal.


    I had been only been given copper and silver coins, but it was still quite the sum I was given. I put one of the crystals in the money bag before tying it to my chest underneath my shirt/toga. The first thing I planned on doing was finding somewhere that sold children''s clothing.


    I waited awhile for the slave to return, it only took a short while for him to return to clear off the table. I decided to ask him about his life as a slave. So putting on a childish attitude (I figured that it would be easier to forgive me if I touched on a sensitive topic), I approached the subject.


    "So... Um... Is it true that your a... Slave?"


    The slave stood before me and replied in a formal tone.


    "Yes I am, young master. Is there anything you require?"


    "Well I was just wondering, what is your life like here.. as a slave."


    The slave thought for a moment before replying.


    "Better than most slaves. I get to sleep inside the mansion and receive three good meals a day. Master Fabinus is not particularly caring, but neither is he harsh, he never uses my slave seal. The work is not laborious so I am in good health. I am lucky that Master Fabinus is my master. Others are not so kind to their slaves. That is my assessment of the situation young master."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Thank you. Well I will be going now. Oh and please leave that crystal on the table, I may need it to find my way back."


    "Certainly sir. Be safe while out and about."


    "Thank you."


    It seems that Porten was a OK guy despite owning a slave, which is the answer I was after. I am not sure I would be comfortable living in the house of a man who mistreats his slaves. Having got the answer I was hoping for, I headed outside.


    My first glimpse of the inside of the capital was of a mostly empty street. The road was paved with smooth stones and its entire length was bordered by close set mansions. The few occupants of the street seemed to be the wealthy homeowner, most of them leaving their homes for the morning. When he told me the layout of the city, Audric had said we where in the wealthy homeowners district located right outside the nobles district.


    I decided to get an aerial view rather than rely on Audric''s vauge description. Although I had not flown before, I was fairly confident I could do so. After all, if Audric could teleport several thousand miles, flying was probably a piece of cake.


    My solution was rather simple, first I created two mana shields flat on the ground, each a 1 foot diameter circle. After placing a foot on each, I wrapped the shield around my foot to allow a firm foothold. The I slowly raised myself a few inches off the ground.


    When I had experimented with moving objects with shields before, I had found that I could move them pretty much however I wanted, the only drawback was that it required a huge amount of mana to sustain, but with my connection with the ether that didn''t really matter. That just means that I will be the only person who uses this method of flight. For this reason I decided to surround my feet in a small gray cloud and make it look like I was standing on it, hopefully I can avoid some suspicion this way.


    Once I was a few inches off the ground I started experimenting. I wasn''t about to throw myself into the sky without testing to make sure I could trust this method. Spending a few minutes zipping around the street a few inches off the ground while only (visibly) wearing a shirt earned me a few strange looks from passerbys.


    I found that I could fully control this spell and could sustain it with only minimal concentration. Thus satisfied that I would not fall to my death, I began my assent.


    ZWOOSH


    Watch it buddy! Once I reached just above the rooftops of the surrounding mansions I was nearly blown away by a flying mage, I was unable to get a good look at him but judging from the glare he was probably bald, and he was wearing white and gray robes. Also the serious gust that assaulted me after he passed suggested that he was using wind magic to propel himself.


    With a newfound caution, I made sure to thoroughly check my surroundings before moving further up. One satisfied that I wouldn''t get hit by another low flyer, I took a look around at the other inhabitants of the sky. I could see at least ten other mages flying about and farther away were people riding some flying creatures. If any of the fantasy web novels I have read had any speck of truth to them, then that would be the city patrols riding either wyverns or griffens.


    Giving one last check to my surroundings I zipped into the sky untill I reached a decent altitude for observation. Wow, just... Wow. This city was nothing like what I was expecting.


    I doubt I can do justice to the city with just words, but I will try. First off the scale of it, I am not confident at my estimation ability, but I would guess that this city had a population are one and a half million people. Roughly circular in shape, the city is surrounded by a wall that stood three times the hight of the surrounding buildings.


    I can not describe everything I was taking in at once, so I will describe the city starting at the center. At the very center of the city is a tower. Now I have been to New York before so I have seen tall towers, and this one would be able to fit right in. At the base of this tower was the royal palace, it looked like a cross between a giant castle and a mansion. The royal palace was surrounded by a large plot of land covered in well maintained greenery.


    Separated from the royal palace by a short fence was the nobles'' district, forming a perfect circle around the palace. There was around one hundred mansions, each with their own large yard. The noble''s choices in what to do with their yard varied from a simple grass field, to a vibrant garden, and some even had swimming pools.


    The nobles'' district was separated from the rest of the city by a stone wall that was twice the hight of the surrounding buildings. The stone wall was connected to the tower at the palace by a transparent barrier that formed a dome over it. The only reason I knew it was there was because it reflected a small amount of sun light.


    Even though the the noble''s district took up a lot of space, compared to the entirety of the city it appeared quite small. Surrounding the nobles'' district was the mansions of the wealthy lesser nobles and and non-nobles. Outwards from there to the North and West where the housing districts for the commoners. To the South was the merchant and craftsman districts. To the East was the warehouse district, and in a sliver to the Northeast, wedged in-between the warehouse district and the northern commoners district was the ''shady'' part of town, consisting of the slums, red light district and ify institutions.


    I lost myself in thought looking out over the vast sea of buildings. I was drawn out of my thoughts by a masculine voice calling out a cheerful greeting.


    "Hello over there! Nice view isn''t it?"


    I had to turn around to get a look at who could be calling out to me at this altitude. What I saw was a mage in light red robes flapping over to me. Yes I mean it when I say flapping, he had a pair of wings made from fire sprouting from his shoulder blades. I can''t say that I had even thought of using fire to make wings, or any sane man for that reason. But then again people on earth rode to save on the ends of rockets...


    Once he got nearby, the mage spread his wings out wide and small jets of flame shot out of the bottom, allowing him to hover near me. Now that he was up close I could make out his features, a blonde haired, blue eyed, pale skinned elf. Tall and thin, he had an appearance of someone around age 18, but I didn''t know how elves aged in this world, so he could be older.


    "Wow! Someone so young using flight magic! Unless your one of the shorter races, then I mean no offense."


    "Ah, no no, I am still growing, no worries."


    "Oh that''s good. But standing on a cloud, I don''t think I have ever seen such a flight magic. Are you perhaps a wind mage?"


    "No, I don''t specialize in wind magic, this is just what I came up with to get around."


    "You came up with your own magic! That''s amazing, are you attending an academy? I am sure any academy would be willing to accept you despite your age..." His voice trailed off as he took a second look at the clothing I was wearing.


    "No, I am not currently attending an academy."


    "Well talent such as yours shouldn''t be put to waste! I will take you to my father, I''m sure he will be willing to pay for your tuition!"


    "Haha, please don''t get the wrong idea, I am not attending an academy because I moved to the city just today. As for my clothing, all of the ones I brought with me were ruined and I just haven''t had a chance to buy new ones."


    "Oh, that''s good to hear, not about your clothes, but that you can attend an academy. Actually my academy," he showed off the badge stitched to the front of his robes, consisting of a tower topped by a beacon, wrapped around by a dragon in gold stitching on a black background. "Othrode Academy, the best academy in the country, is holding its entrance exams in a few days, would you be able to apply by then?"


    I really wanted to check this place out, but I had to keep up appeances, so I pretended to think for a moment.


    "I would have to talk to my dad, but that would probably be OK."


    "Really?! That''s great! My school year doesn''t start back untill after the exams, so I am free all day today, you said you just moved here, so do you need me to show you around?"


    "That would actually be great, do you know any good places to buy clothes? And I never got your name."


    "Sure I know a few places. And it''s Allen, Allen Flamewood. And yours?"


    "Nice to meet you Allen, I am Ambrjrn, Ambrjrn Aldrich."


    Allen scratched his head a moment, "Aldrich... Sounds familiar... Well never mind that follow me."


    Allen put out the jets holding him up and began to soar down towards the merchant district. I put a bit of boost on as I followed him down.


    Down at the merchant district I began to see that the streets here were busy with a large number of people. Allan led me to a wide but mostly empty alley to make his landing, using the wing jets he had used earlier to touchdown. Since I didn''t have any shoes, I decided to simply hover a few feet off the ground, that way I could also stay eye level with Allan.


    "Aren''t you going to run out of mana if you keep hovering like that?"


    "Nope, I can keep this up all day."


    "Damn, I have a pretty big mana pool even for an elf... But I don''t even want to guess how much mana sustaining flight for that long would take... Either that or you developed a revolutionary low cost flight spell."


    Allan didn''t actually act like he was expecting an answer so I didn''t reply. Instead we headed out into the busy street. And wow, was it amazing. True humans here were in the majority, but I would estimate that was about seventy-five percent of the people I could see, the rest...


    Well to name a few of the races I saw... Eleves of various kinds, beast men of various kinds, lizardmen and/or dragonnewts (not to sure which they were), dwarves, halflings, the four armed race Audric had mentioned before, Oni, one woman who I am pretty sure was an Amazon, and a variety of others I did not know the name of.


    Allen seemed unfazed by the crowd and simply began to walk along with the rest of the crowd flow. People gave us a little space, I don''t know if it was because I was floating on a cloud or if they recognized Allan''s robes, maybe both.


    As we moved along Allan questioned me about what exactly I was looking for, I told him that I was going through a bit of a growth spurt I wouldn''t be wearing any clothing I bought for very long. He suggested a shop he knew of that could make clothing that could grow along with a person. I had my interest peaked by this and urged him to lead me there.


    After a few minutes of walking, or rather hovering as it were for me, we arrived in front of a store who''s sign displayed a shirt and pants connected by a thread and needle. There were words written beneath the pictures on the sign, but as my reading had not yet cought up to my talking ability, all I could make out was something about clothing.


    The inside of the shop I found something different from what I was expecting. It was a small empty room. Tacked to the walls were samples of clothing, and at the opposite side from the doorway was a room length counter. We were greeted by a soft feminine voice.


    "Welcome, what can I help you with today?"


    Looking at the originator of the voice, I spyed a ten inch tall humanoid figure standing on top of the counter.


    "[Holy shit, it''s a real live fairy!]"

 Chapter 6. A guided tour

    "[Holy shit, it''s a real live fairy!]"


    The ten inch tall person on the counter had light green hair, honey golden eyes, and pointed ears that were long enough to look a little bit like antenna. Also she was glaring a bit at me now with her hand on her hips.


    "I know us fairies are pretty amazing and all, but thats a bit rude to say."


    "[Woh... You can understand me?!]"


    "Yep, that one of a fairy''s unique abilities, to understand any spoken language."


    "[I can''t say I was ever expecting to be able to speak to someone in English ever again, this is pretty cool.]"


    Needless to say, Allen was quite confused by the conversation. He kept looking back and forth between us trying to decipher the conversation from only what the fairy said.


    "[Well I am Ambrjrn, nice to meet you. As you can see I am in need of clothing.]"


    "Nice to meet you Ambrjrn, I am Lilly Dewdrop. I would judge by the fact that you have sustained flight magic this whole time that you will be growing a lot faster than normal children. Is that why you came to my shop?"


    For Allen''s sake I decided to switch bake to the native language. Now that I thought about it, I had never asked what it was called. I will have to ask someone about that in the future.


    "Yes, my old clothes were ruined on the way to this city, and I have been growing a good bit every night. Do you think you will be able to help me?"


    "Doesn''t sound like a problem. I use a unique fairy magic to make my clothes, all you have to do is give it a bit of your mana and it adjusts to your size. Although my clothing is more expensive than normal clothes, averages around a full silver per piece, can you afford it?"


    "Yea, shouldn''t be a problem."


    That was true, Audric had specified that I was allowed to spend all the money he had given me, so I had no qualms with buying expensive clothing. I had around 20 full silver coins, and enough silver bit coins to make up several more. So one set of clothing wouldn''t be a problem.


    "In that case browse through the samples we have on display, once you make you selection call for me and I will bring out the clothing from the back. Oh, and some of the clothing comes in different colors than what is displayed so feel free to ask what they come in."


    After that Lilly sat down in a fairy sized chair on top of the counter and began reading a book. Aww... So cute... So I began to walk around the shop and observe the displays. There was quite the variety, various kinds of trousers, shirts, vests, capes, half capes, cloaks, shoes, and even underwear.


    In the end I decided on a pair of trousers made of a material similar to jeans, a light weight long sleeve shirt, socks and shoes, a proper pair of underwear seeing as I didn''t have any, and a cloak. I was going to buy them in the colors they came in, which was shades of brown, before Allen suggested I should match them to my hair.


    "I wear red because it goes along with my fire attribute, but I think you should get clothes that matches your hair, that would look so cool! White hair is rare, so just imagine all the girls you could pick up in a matching outfit!"


    He had a point, I should definitely role with the white hair and eyes thing, and I knew just how to do it. I approached Lilly at the counter.


    "I selected these," I point to what I selected, "could I get everything in black and the cloak in white?"


    "Sure let me go get it."


    Lilly flew into the back room and came back a few moments later carrying a tiny stack of clothing. She placed it on the counter and told me to channel my mana into it. I did so, and over a few seconds the clothing grew from fairy sized up to my size. Giving it a brief inspection, I was satisfied with my selection.


    "The cloak and pants are a full silver each, the shirt is six silver bits, the underwear and socks are two silver bits each, and the shoes are seven silver bits. That comes out to three and seven."


    I brought out my bag of money and paid for the clothing. Lilly showed me a changing room off the side of the main room. I changed into my new outfit.


    I was now wearing fully black clothing, except for my my cloak, which was snow white like my hair. Now that I no longer needed to keep bare feet off the ground I dispelled my flight magic and gave out my new shoes, which had leather bottoms and black cloth tops, a try out. All my clothes were very comfortable and fit me perfectly just as promised.


    After saying goodbye to Lilly and having her thank us for our patranidge, Allen and I left the shop. By that time it was nearing noon.


    "Say Allen, do you know any good places to eat lunch?"


    "As a matter of fact I do. It''s a few streets over, so lets fly there."


    He led me to a less busy side street and summoned his flaming wings and took off. Now that I was more familiar with my flight magic, I could summon it instantly, and so I raced off after Allen.


    Allen ended up leading me six streets over before landing in front of a simplistic wooden building. The sign on the front had a picture of a fish stirring a pot with a wooden spoon. The words below said something along the lines of ''silver fish'' or something like that.


    The inside of the building was very pleasant. Lit well enough to see, but dim enough to keep the ambiance of a restaurant. Over half the tables were taken by a wide variety of people, from what appeared to be a group of battle hardened mercenaries to a family with two children.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    We were greeted by a young girl, maybe around seventeen in appearance, shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes, she was pretty cute. She greeted us in a cheerful voice. "Welcome to the Silver Bass Canteen... Oh hello Allen... I wasn''t expecting you today."


    All the sudden she started acting bashful. I turned to Allen to see his reaction, to find that the ends of his pointy ears were growing red.


    "Oi, did you bring me here just so you could meet up with your girlfriend?"


    Allen flashed a guilty grin my way as the ends of his ears grew even redder.


    "Maybe I did, but I wasn''t lying when I said the food here was good."


    "Eh, I don''t mind. Let''s just eat."


    The young woman cought on like a true professional.


    "Right this way to your table. Oh and Allen, I get off at six today."


    Allen''s mouth grew into a wide grin. Wow, this guy was head over heels for her.


    "Of course Vera, I will be waiting for you."


    We were led to one of the smaller tables farther to the back of the building, it didn''t seem like there were menus because Allen began ordering right away. I didn''t know what to get so I asked for the same thing. As we waited I tried to spark up a conversation with Allen.


    "So you said that your last name was Flamewood, right? Now I don''t know much about elves, but do all elves have last names that are related to the forest in some way?"


    "No, that''s just the forest elves. I am a high elf that belongs to the Flamewood clan. Have you ever heard of the great clans?"


    When I shook my head no he continued.


    "On this continent, there are five great clans of high elves. There is my clan, the Flamewoods, named so because almost all of clan children are born with a fire attribute. Then there is the Worldtree clan, which has a nature attribute. There is the Blueriver clan, who possess the water attribute, the Newmoon clan, who have the shadow attribute, and the Sandstorm clan, who''s children are born with either the earth or wind attribute, and sometimes both."


    "Even though the royal family is human, the great clans hold a lot of sway in the government. The kingdom won''t risk losing our backing. I know you are new here, so this is probably something you should be aware of. Some of the people from the clans a pretty easy to offend."


    Allen was surprisingly forthcoming with information. It seems that not everyone from these clans is as nice as Allen.


    "But won''t your clan frown on you dating a human?"


    "Hmm, they might, but the current Flamewood clan head is pretty easy going, and I am not anyone important in the clan, so it should be fine. If I was someone important then I would have to deal with some kind of arranged marriage."


    By that point in the conversation our food had arrived. Vera had brought us both a plate and a mug, which she set down before us. After giving a glance around to make sure no one was looking, Allen snuck ak kiss onto her cheek. Vera blushed and ran off to help other customers.


    Back on earth I had never had a girlfriend, always being more of the shy type, I wonder what it feels like to be in love the way Allen is right now? Who knows, maybe in the future I will find myself a hot cat girl to date, nya.


    The food consisted of a plate of salad, topped with a wide variety of thinly sliced meats and vegetables. In the mug was some form of blue fruit juice. All in all it wasn''t as exciting as breakfast this morning, but was still very good none the less. Allen talked a bit more about his clan, an interesting people, but no information that was actually important.


    After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the merchant district. Allen pointed out any shops I may need to visit in the future. I tried to make mental notes of where everything was, but in the giant city I probably ended up forgetting the location of half of the stores.


    Of particular interest were the blacksmiths, the sheer number of styles and weapons was mind boggling, from plain iron short swords to pole arm weapons I do not know the name of made from blue metal with golden details. Some of the weapons were made for mere decorations, but most were clearly intended to be used in combat.


    When the sun began its final decent, Allen decided to go his separate way.


    "It''s almost time to go get Vera, so I will be going on my way. You know how to get to your home from here?"


    "Ya thanks, I will be fine. Oh and I hope you have fun tonight."


    "Thanks, and if you decide to try out for Othrode academy at the upcoming exams, I will be there keeping an eye out for you."


    "I might see you then, if not I hope our paths cross again."


    Allen gave a friendly wave as he took off into the sky. I retrieved the crystal from my money bag and began to hone in on Audric''s house.


    <hr>


    Once I returned to the house, I found that both Audric and Porten were already back. They were both in the living room that we had first teleported to having a polite conversation about Porten''s activities while Audric had been away. Porten noticed my entry first.


    "Your back. How did your tour of the capital go?"


    "Very interesting. Quite the impressive city, but it has a severe lack of skyscrapers. Lot of people though."


    Audric joined in the conversation.


    "Sky... scrapers..." He hesitated at the term I had put together in their language. "What are those?"


    "A type of tower that is common back home, most are a lot taller than the tower at the palace. They are called skyscrapers because the ''scrape the sky''."


    Porten jumped back into the conversation.


    "Really?! That''s the tallest tower on the continent! What type of magic did they use?"


    "Nope, no magic, just pure mechanical genius."


    Audric began to steer the conversation in a different direction.


    "I see you bought new clothes. Who did you buy them from?"


    "A fairy named Lilly."


    "Oh, that means they are size adjusting right? Quite the valuable purchase for someone still growing."


    "Yea, my new friend from the Flamewood clan suggested the idea to me."


    "You made friends with someone from the Flamewood clan? You sure have been busy. Was it a boy named Allen?"


    "Yes it was."


    "Ah, well I met his father at the magic counsel today, nice man, from the way he spoke he was quite proud of his son. I believe he said his son was attending the Othrode Academy."


    "Speaking of the academy, do you think I can try out the entrance exams?"


    Porten who had fallen silent spoke up. "I''m sorry, but Othrode only accepts the best in the kingdom, I''m not sure if you could make it."


    Audric gave a snort in humor. "Ambrjrn, I doubt you would need to attend the academy, but if you want to try then I am fine paying your tuition."


    Porten fell back into silence with a shocked expression. I thanked Audric for offering to pay before asking him a question that had been itching in my mind all day.


    "By the way, nobody ever told me what this language is called."


    "It''s trade Commons. It was first developed by merchants to make trade easier. Now it is the state language as well as widely spoken in ports around the world."


    After that the conversation continued for nearly an hour, but nothing else of interest was mentioned. After that we all ate dinner together.


    Dinner consisted of slices of meat that were incredibly tender and full of spicy juice. There was two sides of vegetables, one similar to broccoli and the shaped like a sliced red pepper but tasted like green beans.


    There was also a side similar to grits, soft rolls, and a cheesy casserole. Audric and Porten drank wine while I chose to drink water.


    Afterwards I was shown by the slave to the bathroom, where I was surprised to find functioning amenities, such as a sink, toilet, and even a shower. All powered by magic of course. The soap was a little sub par, but passable. After bathing I practiced using water and wind magic to clean and dry my new clothing.


    After that I was shown to a guest room and promptly fell asleep.

 Chapter 7. Questions and cards

    When I woke up, I had grown again. By this point I was not surprised, just curious about the changes happening to my body. The guest room I had been provided had a small mirror hanging from the wall, so I was able to closely inspect my appearance.


    I now had the body and appearance of a preteen only a few days away from being slammed in the face by the hammer of puberty. When most people see me, they would probably place me around eleven going on to twelve. I would place my hight at only slightly under five foot.


    Thankfully no major changes had happened to my appearance, ya know, aside from what happened to me when I first got here. No appearance of antenna or horns or wings, so no complaints in that department.


    My eyes had darkened ever so slightly, although still a silvery blue color. My ears seemed to grow at an even rate, staying only slightly larger than regular human ears, so at least I didn''t have to wory about foot long ears.


    I was curious as to what I should classify myself as, as I was clearly no longer human. When I had first started to get an understanding of the language, I had tryed to ask Audric about it, but soon deduced that he did not know either. Rather, he had said that the summoning circle used the corpses of monster to provide raw material, which I assumed was things like organic compounds and the like, and that it was left up to the consciousness brought over to create the body. The only problem was that I had no recollection of designing this body, and if it had been my subconscious that designed it, why did it not look like my old self? Was this how my subconscious wanted me to look?


    Another question I wanted to know was if the changes to my body were only skin deep. Was I still human on the inside? I could think of a way to find out. I started by channeling ether throughout my body.


    "[Radiation immunity.]"


    Better safe than sorry. Next I channeled ether into my eyes.


    "[X-ray vision.]"


    My eyes grew itchy while my presentation of the world around me changed. The walls of my room began to grow slightly translucent and my reflection in the mirror began to grow transparent. The sensation in my eyes was quite uncomfortable, but I was getting the results I wanted.


    I turned my attention to my reflection in the mirror. Now I was no expert in human anatomy, but that didn''t look right. First off was my skeleton, I had never noticed before because thus far the only activities I had preformed had been of the mental nature ever since coming to this world, but from the looks of it I would guess that my range of motion had greatly increased.


    To test it out I tryed turning my leg around. Once my leg reached the usual place where a human leg stopped turning, my leg felt no resistance and continued in a 180¡ã turn until my foot was facing backwards. I kept my attention on my reflection to observe the process. With this manner of sight the muscles in my body were almost invisible, but from what I could see they shifted around as I turned my leg so as to continue to function without damaging anything.


    I noticed that almost all my joints had changed from the usual human form, I was actually surprised that I had not noticed this before. After my initial fascination wore off, I began to realize just how weird this was and a shudder ran through my body. Let''s never show this to anyone. I turned my leg back to normal position and moved it around to make sure that bending to so far didn''t cause any damage, it hadn''t so I moved on to my next stage of self examination.


    I began to alter the mana in my eyes, trying to create a vision that would allow me to see my organs. I had no real goal or knowledge of how to do so, so I spent nearly twenty minutes of trial and error before I finally managed to create a vision that allowed me to see inside myself at a set depth. By that time my eyes were thoroughly burning and feeling as if I had sand in them, but bared with it until I had a proper view.


    I started a scan of my body starting with the front of my chest and moving farther back, the vision I had developed displayed everything in a cross section type view.


    First difference I noticed was that I had two hearts. Yes, you heard right, two hearts, both in the center of my chest cavity like a regular heart with one place above the other, the lower one placed slightly to my left side and the upper slightly to my right.


    That wasn''t the only change either. My digestive system, while appearing mostly the same, was much more compact. Judging that I hadn''t been having any problems while eating or shitting, I assumed that it had gotten a performance boost to allow for the smaller size.


    The newly opened space left from the smaller digestive system was filled with an assortment of organs that I had no clue as to what they did. What I guessed to be my liver was on my left side. There was a small sac of liquid that had tubes running between several of the new organs and several of the ones I could recognize. There was a banana shaped organ which had a mostly uniform material throughout was on my right side. There was ever a round organ with a small shard of crystal in it.


    Releasing the mana from my eyes brought some relief, but the uncomfortable sensation did not disappear for several minutes.


    "[What the fuck have I become?]"


    <hr>


    Porten, who had been told about my rapid growth by Audric, was still a bit surprised when I came into the dining room this morning. My self examination had taken longer than expected and both Porten and Audric were already eating breakfast in the dining room.


    Breakfast had been left out for me, which was similar to the breakfast on the first day, but instead of the boiled eggs, there was something similar to sauteed potato chunks. Also the selection of breads were different from yesterday.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Both Audric and Porten seemed to sense that I wasn''t in a mood to talk, so they only offered polite greetings before returning to their conversation, seemingly about politics, a subject I held no interest in.


    I wonder if human anatomy was different in this world than from my own? If it was it may explain some of the strange organs I had seen in myself. I channeled ether into my eyes once more bringing back the itching and gave both Audric and Porten''s internal organs a once over.


    No such luck. Both of them were text book perfect humans. Although both had flinched and looked in my direction when I started scanning, but both had ignored it. Apparently they could since when they were being magically observed, a skill I would need to look into.


    But being that humans were the same here only raised more questions about myself. Did this have something to do with the monster corpses that Audric had used? Knowing that it was unlikely that I would ever answer these questions was distressing. Even though this society had used magic to create technology beyond what I would have expected, I still doubted they had something along the lines of DNA analysis, and I was certain that I would never be able to recreate it, so comparing my DNA to the monsters used was out of the question.


    Once brackfast was over, Audric noticed my gloomy expression and decided to give me something else to think about.


    "You know, if you want to join Othrode, you will need a city issued identification card. How about I take you to get yours? It should only take a few hours."


    Welcoming the chance to distract myself from my thoughts on unanswered questions, I nodded in agreement. Both Audric and I were already dressed, me in my black clothing and white cloak and Audric in his typical dark blue mage robes, so it only took a few minutes for us to be ready to go.


    "The chamber of law is a good distance from here, so should I carry you while I fly there?"


    "No need, I figured out how to fly yesterday."


    Audric smiled. "You have only been practicing magic for a few days now, but considering what you were capable of on the first day you started practicing, and that appraisal magic at breakfast, I suppose I shouldn''t be surprised. Let me see it."


    I set up my magic just like yesterday with the tiny cloud and all before drifting a few feet into the air. Audric let out a chuckled deep in his chest.


    "Hahahaha, Using mana shields as a platform to ride on! Who would of thought I would see the day. And the cloud is a nice touch to keep mages guessing. Even I would have thought it was some form of wind or water magic if I hadn''t been actively sensing the ether."


    It seems my guess about nobody else using this method was accurate. Audric prepared his own flight magic and was flung into the sky by a powerful gust of wind. Apparently that was a popular choice for mages. I quickly zipped into the sky after him.


    After flying for about a minute, we landed near the border between the merchant district and the mansion district that Audric lived in, unofficially called the ''wealthy district''. The building we landed Infront of was of a style similar ancient Greek architecture. It was constructed of a highly polished light tan stone, and had twenty pillars in front.


    Before we entered the chamber of law, I decided to ask Audric about what would be expected of me.


    "What will I have to do to get this identification card?"


    "Nothing to difficult, answer a few questions, like name, age, gender, and race. You still look like a kid, they should believe anything you say. Plus I am here to vouch for you so you got nothing to worry about."


    "But how do I answer some of those, age? Eighteen going on three weeks. Race? I was a human but now I am not. I don''t think they will accept that."


    "Hmm, just let me answer the questions, it will easier to explain you as my half-breed son."


    "I was under the impression that you didn''t like it when I said you were my dad?"


    "Well, if you had asked me three weeks ago if I had been ready to be a father... The answer would have been no. Even now I still am not ready. But I do see how a lot of problems can be avoided if people just think you are my son."


    "Well that is convenient, because just yesterday I told Allen that my last name was Aldrich."


    "I''m not surprised. Well let''s get going."


    The inside of the chamber of law was quite impressive, with high vaulted ceilings supported by marble pillars. We approached the reception desk located near the back of the main room, which was mostly empty this early in the morning. There was a middle aged blonde woman in an outfit similar to a business suit. Audric simply stated that he wanted to get an identification card for his son, and without so much as looking she wrote a note on a scrap of paper and handed it to Audric while telling him room eight.


    Audric then led me down a hallway to the side of the desk untill he reached a wooden door on his right labeled number eight. He gave two light knocks and immediately a male voice said "come in."


    We entered and found ourselves in a small office. Behind a small wooden desk was a balding man with a slightly bulging belly. The top of the desk held several stacks of paper, each about two inches thick.


    "Hello, I am here to get an identification card for my son." He passed him the note from the receptionist. After reading it, the man gave a slight nod.


    "Very well, and is this," he looked in my direction, " your son?" His face held a quizzical look.


    "Yes it is," he extended his hand to the man, "I am Audric Aldrich."


    The man shook his hand. Audric had mentioned before that a handshake was an acceptable form of greeting, which came as a relief to me.


    "Please, call me Blane... Wait, did you say Aldrich, as in Archmage Aldrich?"


    "The one and the same."


    The man smiled politely, but anyone could see that it was like a wave had washed over him. When he spoke next his voice had grown even more polite and friendly then before.


    "Please, sit down, sit down! All I need is to ask you a few questions and your son will have his card in no time at all."


    "Of course, ask away."


    Blane pulled out a form out from a drawer in has desk and prepared a pen.


    "First off I will need his name."


    "Ambrjrn Aldrich."


    "Ambr...Jrn?"


    "His mother named him."


    "Of course. I will also need to know his mother''s race."


    Apparently Audric had already put some thought into this because he replied immediately.


    "I met his mother in a forest tribe I encountered on my travels. The inhabitants were a race of elves I had never seen before, and that had no name for themselves."


    "I see... I suppose I can get by with just elf under his mother''s race... OK next question, how old is he?"


    "He is ten this year, but just recently began an advanced form of mage''s growth. Probably brought about by me being an Archmage and his mother having a large mana pool."


    "Thank you, that would have been the next question I asked you. How long do you estimate until he reaches adulthood?"


    "It couldn''t be more than a few weeks from now."


    "I see, I see, a few weeks... Wait! A few weeks?! Ah, but you are a Archmage so I suppose it is not impossible for your child."


    "Anything else?"


    "Hrm, no, I can probably get by with this information. I can have the card done in three hours."


    "Very well, we will see you in three hours."


    With that, we now had three hours to burn. After we left the chamber of law, Audric asked me what I wanted to do for the next three hours.


    "Well, I know that the entrance exams for Othrode will be in several days, but I don''t know the exact date and time. Perhaps we should go find out? Maybe take a look at the on site facilities?"


    "Sounds like a sound suggestion. I will lead you there."

 Chapter 8. The shady bit of town

    After only a quick flight over the city, Othrode academy came into my view. It was located in the wealthy district on the direct other side of the noble district from Audric''s house.


    The academy was quite large, taking up the space of four blocks. It was separated from the nearby streets and mansions by a short fence backed by view blocking shrubs all around. The academy had three, four story buildings set around a field in the center, each building was rather mundane in appearance, made from gray stone and tiled roof. Along the edge of the field not bordering a build was the entrance gate.


    The layout was fairly simple, if I had to guess I would say that the field in the center was most likely for students to practice large scale magic. As we hovered over looking down at the academy, Audric told me that he had actually briefly studied at Othrode once upon a time when he was still a fledgling mage. He gave me a brief description of the layout of the academy.


    "As you walk interested front gate, the building to your right top three floors serve as dorm rooms for boys, and the bottom floor is classrooms. The building to your left top three floors is the dorms for girls and classrooms on the bottom floor. The building straight ahead contains the headmasters office, offices for teachers and staff, teacher services, and several classrooms they couldn''t fit in to other buildings. Under each building is a large training area, and the field in the center is also used for training. At least that was how it was laied out when I went there."


    "Thanks. But now that we are here, I don''t see anyone in the academy, did they all go home until the new school year starts?"


    "Probably. Well they always have a guard by the gate, so we can ask him about the exams."


    We dropped down to street level and approached the small shack next to the front gate. Inside was a city guard, wearing the standard guards armer of chainmail with a light cloth tunic over top that had the symbol for the kingdom of Albin, which was a golden sword on top of a deep blue shield. The guard had a short sword strapped to his waist, and his helmet, similar in design to a roman centurion''s helmet but without the plume, was sitting on a nearby shelf.


    The guard was sitting on a wooden stool and was completely engrossed in reading a small leather bound book. Audric asked him when the exams were, and he answered without even looking up from his reading.


    "Three days from now. Starts at midmorning."


    Seriously? Shouldn''t such lax behavior be reported? But then again having to sit around all day guarding a gate must be boring. Oh well, at least we got what we came for.


    Feeling a little disappointed that we couldn''t learn a bit more about the academy, Audric asked for suggestions as to what we should do with our remaining time. I wanted to practice magic, but I would only be able to practice small scale stuff inside city limits.


    I also wanted to check out the seedy part of the city. For several reasons, first was because I felt I would be able to learn a lot about the overall quality of the city by comparing the lowest of the low to the higher ups. Second was because in most web novels I read, the most interesting events tended to happen in the slums and shady areas. And third, was because I wanted to test and see how well my magic would work against people. Now don''t get me wrong, I wasn''t planning on killing anyone, I just wanted to see if I could restrain them, and the best place to ''accidentally'' get mugged was in the seedy district. But I wasn''t about to let Audric tag along, so going there now was a no go.


    In the end I suggested that we just wander around the merchant district untill it was time to eat, afterwards we could go and get my ID. The merchant district was huge and I had only seen a small part of it yesterday, so wandering around wouldn''t be a waste.


    While we were flying to the merchant district, I had a thought about the identification card.


    "Hey Audric, didn''t you tell the guy making my card that I was ten? Even after I reach an adult body, won''t that still be a problem."


    Audric stopped mid air and turned to me.


    "I don''t understand, how would that be a problem?"


    "Say for example I went to buy beer and the bartender asks to see my identification, wouldn''t he tell me I am to young?"


    "You are still losing me, why would a bartender need to see your identification?"


    "What is the minimum drinking age in this country?"


    "Minimum drinking age?"


    So it is like that. I suppose I should have expected such a thing from a medieval type society.


    "OK, ignore the drinking age... Let me ask this, what is the age of consent in this country?"


    "Age of consent?"


    Apparently that was also a foreign term here.


    "Let me put it this way, how old does someone have to be to go to a brothal?"


    "Old enough to get his prick up."


    "So you are saying that in this country a child is allowed to do anything an adult can do?"


    "Yep."


    Facepalm. Does this society know nothing of protecting their children? What about child labor? Did they have that to? They had slavery so probably so. But at the same time this is kind of good for me. It means that I don''t worry about people stopping me for my child-like appearance.


    I simply continued on my way to the merchant district. Our conversation lapsing into an uncomfortable silence.


    The merchant district didn''t fail to impress. I got to see first hand a master glassblower at work, glassware is something only the rich can afford, so every piece on display was a work of art. There was a sculptor selling a wide variety of statues of every kind of material. At one leather workers shop, I discovered that leather working could be an art form, he was selling leather clothing decorations with intricate designs. One I particularly liked was vest cover in a tiny floral and vines pattern.


    I have never been one to buy souvenirs, so I only looked. Audric stopped at several magic shops and made purchases of supplies he needed. Two and a half hours passed quickly, so we stopped for lunch before heading to pick up the identification.


    "So what do you want for lunch? There are a wide variety of food stalls in the area." Audric asked.


    "Hmm... I could really go for some [tacos] right about now."


    "Taaa coos? What are those?"


    "Basically it is meat and cheese along with several other toppings of your choice that you wrap up in a thin piece of flat bread. Although I am not sure if bread is the best way to describe it..."


    "Never heard of something like that. Best I can think of would be a meat and cheese pie. Actually there is a stall for those right over there."


    "Let''s just get some of those for now, I will try making my own some other time."


    We both bought and ate a pie from the stall, the pie was actually a lot like chicken pot pie. After finishing we flew back to the chamber of law. Blane was in the same spot he was this morning, sitting in his office. He had a freshly made card waiting.


    The card was about the same size as a credit card, it had rounded edges and was made from a silvery metal. The card was magic in nature, while it had my name, my race as human-elf hybrid, and my age as ten. When I touched the card, several details appeared on the surface, it had my hight, hair color, eye color, and physical age. Blane said that every time I touched it, the description would update to reflect physical changes. The final feature was that when I touched it, it would glow green, while if anyone else touched it, it would glow red. Convenient for keeping anyone else from using it.


    Audric had to pay a silver bit fee for the card and then we left. Once outside the building once more, Audric asked what I wanted to do. After telling him I wished to explore the city alone, he provided me with some spending money and left, saying that he would be at the magic counsel headquarters.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Once he was gone, I headed for the slums district.


    <hr>


    The slums district is the smallest of any of the districts in the city. It was located in between the warehouse district and the commoners housing district. Compared to the other districts it is small, but considering the scale of the city, it still was quite vast.


    I landed on the outskirts of the slums and walked it, after all, I didn''t want anyone knowing I was a mage... Yet. I chose to walk in from the warehouse district to observe how the two shifted from one to the other. Turns out that at the edge of the warehouse district that the warehouses shift from good repair to bad after only a few buildings. Inside the slums I could see clear evidence that some of the old warehouses were being used for shady business, judging from how some of them had goons guarding the entrances and the only people entering and exiting were making clear attempts at not being recognized.


    The farther in a walked the worse the warehouses grew and the more ''houses'', if you could call them that, started to sprout up. I was quite appalled by the people here, most of the people''s clothing was filthy and in varying states of disrepair, most of the people showed some signs of illness, and most looked as if they were trying to cover something up. Almost every alleyway I passed had a woman or two trying to lure men in, most had appearances that I would think would turn most men off though. I suppose as far down it the gutter as these people were that the men would fuck anything with a hole.


    Something else I noticed was a large lack of non-human. There were a few here and there, but far less than what I had seen in other parts of the city. I wondered why. Was it due to some form of racism? A sort of ''ignorance breeds fear'' kind of thing? Or did most non-humans have some form of skill they know how to turn into profit and therefore have no need of living here?


    I got a large number of stares from the locals, I soon realized that a white cloak probably wasn''t a good idea, also I probably should have worn the hood to cover my ears...


    After only five minutes of walking I was surrounded by a group of five thugs. I didn''t even have to duck into an alley to get mugged, they just surrounded me in the middle of the street, and the locals didn''t look like they gave a shit. They are all males, shabby uncleaned clothing, scruffy facal hair, and daggers. You probably get the picture of your basic goons, I wasn''t really bothered to notice more details about them than that, I imagine that their kind comes a dime a dozen in the slums.


    The one directly in front of me was significantly larger than the others and was bald, several scars adorned his face. He flashed me a smile filled with rotten teath.


    "Oi, we got urselvs a dirty demi here. Tha boss pays extra fur demis, so ur coming wit us boy."


    "Sounds fun." I replied.


    Judging from what I could decipher from his slang mumbo jumbo, it seems like instead of mugging me, they intend to sell me to someone, probably an illegal slave ring that deals in kidnapped persons. They didn''t even ask for any of my money either, these guys probably weren''t the sharpest tools in the shed.


    My hypothesis was further proved correct by the thug leaders confused "Ehh?"


    "I assume you want to sell me to a slaver or something, and I think that sounds fun so let''s go."


    The thug stared at me blankly for several seconds before his tiny mind came to a conclusion. He shrugged his shoulders and said.


    "Follow me den."


    Definitely an idiot.


    Bald thug and his gang led me to a nearby warehouse. It''s entrance was being guarded by two overly muscled men, they recognized the bald thug and let him in. My suspicions were proved correct when I cought sight of the large number of cages organized into neat rows. I also discovered what happened to all the non-humans who tried to live in the slums.


    Although only about half the cages here had people in them, these were mostly filled with various non-humans. From were we had entered I could only see two human slaves amongst the non-humans.


    Soon a tall thin man wearing dark cloth clothing mad to resemble formal clothing unhurriedly made his way over to the thugs group. Baldy''s demeanor completely changed from before, he now made an effort to stand up straight and made an effort to keep a neutral face.


    "Sir, we cought uh demi, and brought ''em over to sell, sir."


    This guy must be someone they fear for them to put so much effort into trying to be polite. The tall man, who was pale, had dark hair, beady eyes, and a beak nose, studied me for a few seconds before replying.


    "Good, I don''t recognize his species so I can sell him off as an exotic. I will pay an extra 20 full coppers over your usual fee."


    The bald thug seemed delighted. Too dumb to haggle the price I guess. Well anyways it''s about time for me to make my move.


    "I am afraid I can''t allow that." I snapped my fingers and at the same moment created small shock waves next to the five goons who had brought me here. The shockwaves made a cracking noise and sent each of them flying and crashing into nearby cages and walls.


    The tall man narrowed his beady eyes at me for a moment, but like a true business man quickly went with the flow.


    "Ah, I did not realize we had an esteemed mage in my presence. Please allow me to extend my deepest apologies for the conduct of my... Associates." He said while giving a slight bow.


    Seems this guy is much smarter than the thugs.


    "It''s fine, I allowed them to lead me here after all."


    "Of course. Please tell me what I can do for you... Mr..."


    "Call me Mr. Frank. And I am new to this country so I was curious about how slavery operates here."


    "Then please allow me to answer any questions you may have Mr. Frank."


    "Well, first I would like to know why the slums have such a hostility towards non-humans."


    "I suppose it is because the inhabitants of the slums have next to nothing, so they hold onto what they do have, and for them that is being born a human. The laws of this country treat non-humans as equal to humans, but that didn''t stop the people here from dragging them into alleys and killing them. Long story short, I made some deals with the right people and was able to move in and give the people a less violent alternative to vent their frustration, while simultaneously supplying certain wealthy persons with what they require to feed their fetish."


    "So your a saint who gets to line his pockets at the same time."


    "I would hardly go that far."


    "OK, next question, what are the legal requirements to make someone a slave?"


    "Legal? Well mostly it is criminals that are made slaves, such as thieves who cannot repay the amount the victim demands as repayment. Also there are people who owe debts and cannot repay, although for that the case is supposed to be brought before a judge who decides if slavery should be used to repay. The least common kind is war captives. If a creature is considered by law to be a monster, then they can be bought and used with no restrictions."


    "I see. What would be an example of a monster type?"


    "We have several selections to the back there if you care to see, but the most popular would be harpys or lamias."


    "Well I suppose that''s all my questions for now, so I would like to browse your stock."


    "Of course, over to your left are the teenagers and children. Towards the center are the types better for domestic type work. To your right are sex slaves, And to the back of the room are the monster types."


    I began my tour at the left and worked my way right. All the slaves here were on the thin side with only rags to wear. The majority of the slaves seemed to be of the beastmen races, with only a few others. Cat eared, dog eared, I even saw a few with cow and pig like features. There were only ten humans amongst the slaves and only one elf.


    Strange, when I had first realized that this was an illegal slave operation I hadn''t even considered trying to free them, and even now when I looked at them in their cages I felt no pity. When I had first learned that there was slavery in this country I had felt shock, but was that just because it was different from what I was used to? Had I changed to feel nothing at their enslavement, or had I always been twisted this way? Truth be told, I didn''t know, and that actually scared me, both possibilities were undesirable.


    I finished looking through the regular slaves without finding any interesting other than the black markings on their necks. I was curious about how enslavement magic worked. I moved on to the monster types.


    The first cage I encountered was large and held only a single occupant. Wild curly red hair, crimson eyes, and healthy tanned skin. She had a well muscled yet feminine figure that went down to her waist, were her skin suddenly stopped and turned to brilliant red scales. A lamia, instead of legs she had the tail of a snake from her hips down. She was currently sleeping.


    The owner of this establishment had left me while I browsed, but now decided to rejoin me.


    "Ahhh, this one was brought in by hunters several weeks ago, but she has a violent streak that kept her from selling. She jumped from market to market until she ended up here."


    "Interesting..."


    The next group of cages contained beings that stood slightly under five foot tall, all female. They looked mostly human except for the large pair of feather cover wings sprouting from their backs, and feathers growing from the backs of their hands to their elbows, and from their ankles to their knees.


    "Harpys. I don''t know how much you know about them, but all harpys are born female, and must mate with a male from one of the races to bear children."


    So that was the same as it was in fokelore. I was interested in these monster girls, but for today I was just going to browse, so I moved on to the last cage. The last cage contained several three foot tall humanoids with green skin and dumb looks. Your typical goblins.


    "Most people who buy goblins buy them for their ability to get into small spaces. They often train them to clean chimneys or clear out sewer blockages."


    The last thing I noticed was a shelf off to one side that held several sealed glass containers, each about two foot tall and a foot in diameter. They were filled with blue liquid, approaching closer, I saw that in the middle of each floated a round crystal, approximately an inch in diameter, that was covered in markings similar to slave markings. A label on the shelf showed that each costed one gold bit coin, wearas most slaves I this shop costed two full gold.


    "Excuse me, what are these?"


    "Have you ever heard of a ''fun slime'' Mr. Frank?"


    I shook my head no.


    "Fun slimes are a type of slime created by an alchemist. Unlike wild slimes, fun slimes are created unable to digest living flesh and supply air to anything inside of them preventing them from being able to suffocate a living being. This makes them unable to harm humans. A fun slimes can change its body from fully liquid to an almost complete solid, and can shape shift to a certain extent. They are made with some intelligence so you can tell them what form you want them to shift to."


    "Interesting..."


    I hadn''t been planning on buying anything here, but I had to admit that this ''fun slime'' has peaked my interest.


    "The jars they are in, how long can they be stored in there?"


    "They can be stored in the jar indefinitely, they have to be fed while active, but if you put them back into a sealed jar they will hibernate until taken back out."


    Yep, I am totally getting one. Even if I don''t open it right away, I can just keep it tucked away until I move out on my own.


    I agreed to buy it and handed over ten full silver coins to the slave merchant, who I had never learned the name of. He told me that once I opened the container I should say "I am your new master" to activate the slave magic and make it follow my commands.


    Happy with my purchase, I took out my cloak and used it to wrap up the container. Outside I found that I had spent most of the afternoon there and that it was time to head back.

 Chapter 9. Entrance exams--part 1

    Two days have passed since my little excursion to the slums. Once I returned home from the slave dealer I hid the ''slime in a tube'' in my rooms closet. The slaver had said that it could be stored indefinitely while in the container, so there was no need for me to open it immediately.


    I spent the last two days improving my reading. I was able to hold a spoken conversation, although there was still some times I did not fully understand what was said, but my reading was only at basic levels. Having come from a world were reading was just about the second most important skill behind the ability to speak, and being an avid reader myself, I was eager to improve my reading ability.


    In this world not everyone is taught how to read, so I was only at a slight disadvantage compared to the average person. But while at the academy, I intended to take every opportunity to learn about this world, which included reading as many books as I could.


    Back to the present, it was currently evening, the sun was slipping below the horizon, and I was currently laying on my queen sized bed. Tomorrow morning was the day of the entrance exams, so after two full days learning about an alien form of writing, I was ready to drop off to sleep. But as it was not fully dark yet, I laied on my bed exercising my mind.


    My current thoughs of choice were on the ideas behind space. I had already learned first hand that teleportation magic and storage magic existed, but I had yet to try it. I was a bit nervous about trying teleportation magic, with the possibility of being turned into atomic dust and all, so I decided to wait and learn about it from someone who had done it before.


    After spending a long time in thought about how to go about creating a storage space I eventually came up with an image of how to go about it. I didn''t know much about pocket dimensions and the like, so I imagined a space connected to ours, yet out of phase with our own space, something along those lines. I also imagined some ''rules'' for it to follow. 1. It did not exist in any specific place, so it could be accessed from anywhere. 2. Any object placed inside could be extracted from any place the space was accessed from.


    Now such a convenient space did not exist naturally, so I would have to set it up. I spent the next several minutes channeling vast amounts of ether into creating the space I had imagined. I ended up using more ether than I had ever used before to set up the space, but I had no way to know if it was successful until I tryed accessing it. I envisioned a small rift opening up to the space and gave it a try.


    In front of me a small black scar just big enough to fit my had appeared floating mid air. I would seem that that part worked. I tryed reaching into the rift with my right hand. Once my hand entered, I could feel the entirety of the space I had set up; it was currently empty (obvious) but was also surprisingly small. Being that I could feel the entire space, I could tell exactly how large it was, which was about three foot cube. I tried expanding it and discovered that if I expended my entire mana pool, I could expand it by about one inch. Since I was using ether I didn''t need to use my own and expanded it to a five foot square.


    Satisfied with the size for the time being, I decided to test it''s ability to store objects. There was a decorative vase sitting on a small table in my room, so I tossed it through the rift, I waited a bit before reaching in and pulling it back out. A close examination of the vase revealed no signs of damage or deterioration.


    I also tryed putting in a leather bag with five copper bits in it into my storage. I was surprised to discover that I could both extract the entire bag with all the coins in it at once, but also extract a single coin out of the bag at a time. The leather bag showed no Ill effects and the money showed no signs of weakening or corrosion.


    Last step in my examination was to see if the storage space, which I decided I would call my inventory, would stay up while I sleep, or if it would disappear and the objects inside either disappear with it or be dropped out. I decided not to potentially waste money and stored the vase I had started with. I then went to sleep, excited to see if I was successful and excited for the upcoming exams.


    <hr>


    The next morning I started by checking the progress of my growth as I had been doing these last several days. I seemed to have reached an approximate fourteen year old body, I was now about five foot three, with the average adult human hight in this land being around five five I was making good progress. My eyes still showed no signs of changing after the first time I noticed them get darker a few days ago, seems I will forever have silver blue eyes.


    Now for the moment of truth, to see if my inventory sustained itself. This morning I had seen no vase on the floor, so it had not dropped out last night. I opened up the rift, which formed with no problems, and reached in. I could feel the vase which was a good sign, after I pulled the vase out, I could detect no signs of damage.


    This was good news for me, it means that I can carry whatever I want with me without potentially having it stolen.


    New entrants to the exams would stop being accepted by mid morning when the exams began, so the next several minutes were spent quickly getting dressed in my every day outfit, tossing my spending money into my storage space, and eating a quick breakfast of what was left out for me on the table. I really had to lean to wake up sooner.


    A quick flight across the city brought me to the gates of the academy, where there was already a crowd gathered. In front of the gate were six desks manned by what I assumed to be academy staff, from the looks of it this was were people applied for the exams. Most of the crowd had already formed up lines going to each of the desks, while the rest looked to be family wishing luck to their children. There was also several carriages unloading teenagers dressed in fancy clothing, I assumed these to be the children of nobles; these children seemed to have a separate desk set aside for them to enter without having to wait in line.


    I decided to land a short ways from the crowd so as to not draw attention to myself and then ran over and got at the back of what appeared to me to be the fastest moving line. Ten minutes later of waiting, I reached to desk. The man sitting behind it was middle aged, black hair and of average appearance.


    "Identification card?" He asked in a bored voice.


    I handed it to him and he studied it before scribbling down notes on a piece of paper. He gestured to a crystal ball sitting on the desk.


    "Put your hands on the ball."


    I did so, and the ball flashed for a few seconds before glowing white and displaying the number ''11,823''.


    "No attribute, but that is an impressive mana pool, probably lager than most noble children." Said the man while making more notes.


    "You have to provide proof of ability to pay the tuition, please provide that now."


    Audric had mentioned this yesterday and had given me a letter to provide to the academy. I handed it to the man who quickly read it before making more notes.


    "Proof of payment is acceptable. Please wait in the field for the exam to start."This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    As I walked forward through the gate, I heard the man asking the next person in line for their name in the same bored voice he used with me.


    Once inside, I was able to see the large crowd of people already waiting inside. I had yet to reach my full height so it was difficult to judge their numbers, but I could definitely say that they were over two hundred, with more still tricking in. Most formed small clusters to talk amongst themselves, yet there was also a number of loners like myself.


    I had about an hour till mid morning, I didn''t know any of the other applicants, and I didn''t see any students on the field so being able to find Allen was unlikely. So I ended up waiting the entire time by myself. Although it wasn''t boring as I got to observe the wide variety of species sharing the field with humans.


    By the time I heard the yell from the front gate saying that no more would be accepted, the field had become about 80% full. Opposite from the main gate and located in front of the teachers building was a raised wooden stage, now an elderly man stood on top of it. He was dressed in a gray robe emblazoned with the Othrode academy crest on his left chest. His gray bead reached halfway down his chest and his hair was a slat and pepper gray. He spoke with a deep commanding voice that easily reached every corner of the field, probably assisted by magic.


    "Welcome to the Othrode academy. I am headmaster Talen. You are probably excited to get started so I am going to skip all the formalities and right to the description of your first test. In front of this stage you will find several tables under the watchful eye of our staff. On each table you will find a vertical glass tube with a ball in it. You will put your hand on the tube and attempt to raise the ball. The amount of mana you use will not effect the test, all that is required is that you be able to control what you put into the tube. Additionally the ball will become harder to lift as it is raised up in the tube. After all, someone with a vast amount of mana and no control will lose to someone with a tiny amount and good control. Conditions for passing this test are that you rise up the ball more than half way up the tube."


    After that the headmaster climbed down from the stage and the crowd began to form lines once more. Thankfully I had gotten here somewhat early and only ended up halfway down the line.


    As I approached the table, I was able to observe the other students as they performed the test. To my left was the table and line reserved for the nobles, most all of which were able to raise the ball well over halfway, In my own line it seemed that most were not so talented. Almost all were able to get the ball to shoot up several inches, but the ball often quickly slowed down and stopped. A surprising number of people were unable to move the ball past the halfway point, those that were able to were met with applause by those behind them in line.


    In front of me in line was a young man, around seventeen with rusty brown hair. When his turn came he tryed to lift the ball, it climbed up to slightly below the halfway point, he seemed to stain and stared intently at the ball inside, sweat began to form on his brow, but the ball would rise no further. Finally giving up he let go and dropped to the ground sobbing, apparently he really wanted to get in. Quite bothersome to have to wait, but I didn''t want to draw attention to myself so I didn''t push him out of the way and simply waited for the staff to drag him out of the way.


    When my turn came I was able to observe the device up close. It was actually very simple, a glass tube four feet tall and about an inch in diameter, it was sealed at the top and had a glass handle attached to the base. Inside was a carved wooden ball that seemed to fit inside perfectly. From observing the others I knew that you grabbed the handle and lifted the ball. I will admit that I was a bit nervous, I could manipulate mana pretty easy, but had no way to compare to others before. Now I was about to see how I measured up to others. I grabbed the handle.


    I had decided beforehand to try and only use my own mana during the exam, I didn''t want to expose my ability to anyone just yet and had no way of knowing who my be monitoring the ether. I infused a small amount of mana into the tube and began lifting. At first the ball bounced up with only a small nudge but got heavier as it rose. The ball seemed to grow heavier at an exponential rate, with each added centimeter adding twice the weight, and the next centimeter adding twice that. I was able to lift it above the halfway point fairly easily and was only in the final foot of the tube that I began to struggle. Lifting it up as high as I could go got me within several centimeters of the top of the tube, but as hard as I tried I could not rise it further.


    The staff member who manned the table I was at was a young woman, mid twenties with a deep blue hair and what appeared to be two tiny black gems set close together right between her eyebrows, although I suspected that these were actually some form of eyes. She seemed quite shocked by how well I had done.


    "That''s incredible! That''s as good as most of the teachers here!"


    "I guess that means I pass?"


    "Yes! Go over there (she pointed towards the left side of the field) and wait for the next phase. And congratulations on doing so well."


    As I walked towards the indicated spot, I noticed that while those who passed went to the left, those who did not went around the left side and left through the front gate. By then all the nobles had finished and were waiting in that area with the few commoners who had passed. I could pick out 23 nobles, all clustered around each other while the commoners kept their distance from them. Not caring much for the idea of striking up a conversation with nobles, I headed towards the commoners.


    Unfortunately, the world had other plans for me. Out of the cluster of nobles strode a man in his late teens, he had dirty blonde hair, a somewhat handsome face, and an athletic build. He wore something similar to a formal military suit that was dark blue with gold trimming and epaulettes over the shoulders. (Frilly shoulder covers on old uniforms.) His deep green eyes held anger in them.


    "The fuck do you think you are doing?"


    Seems I managed to piss of someone troublesome even though I tryed acting like everyone else. I wanted to tell him to fuck off but decided that would only cause more problems.


    "I''m sorry sir, have I inadvertently done something to offend you?"


    The young man''s face began grow red.


    "I am supposed to the BEST here, a FUCKING MAGGOT shouldn''t do better on the test then ME!"


    I could feel my eyes twitching, and was using my everything to not bitch slap this imbecile.


    "I am sorry sir, I only just moved here and thought I was supposed to do my best, I wasn''t aware I was supposed to hold back for anyone."


    A thinly veiled insult, but apparently this guy didn''t catch on. His face few slightly less red.


    "Then you better learn fast that I am the prince and that you can''t be better than me. NOBODY can. If you do I will tell my father the KING!"


    Seriously dude, your going to go there? Didn''t he realize how immature that sounded? Luckily the prince turned on his heal and stalked back to his group of nobles without waiting for a reply. I was THIS close to finding a switch and giving the brat the punishment his father never gave him.


    I sat down near the group of commoners and took several deep breaths to calm down. Most of the commoners were staring at either me or the prince wide eyed. It didn''t take very long before the first phase of the exam to finish, nearly two thirds of the people who had tried had failed, and so the number of applicants had fallen to slightly less than three hundred. The headmaster returned to the stage after the final failures had left through the front gate. All of us moved back to Infront of the stage.


    "Congratulations on completing the first phase. The second phase will be held in our underground training facilities. The second test will require a display of magic, so those who can use combat magic please move to the right side of the stage, and those that use support type magic please move to the left. To keep things fair we will need to test your abilities separate."


    A hand darted up from the cluster of nobles, it was the prince again. Without waiting to be called on he asked his question.


    "Where do the nobles go for testing?"


    "Ah, Prince Bernard, I received a letter from the king saying that you would be enrolling today. His letter also said that he wanted me to treat you as I would any other student. Apparently he believes it will help you build character. For that reason the nobles will not be receiving further special treatment."


    The king rose ever so slightly in my opinion for trying to correct his mistakes. Needless to say the prince was flabbergasted.


    "M- M- my father said such a thing?"


    "Indeed, I can show you the letter if you want."


    Did I detect an ever so slight amount of mocking? Was the headmaster enjoying this? Plus points for the headmaster.


    "There is no need."


    "Good, now as I was saying, for the students who will try combat magic, you will be placed at the end of a lane, at the other end will be a target. You goal is to destroy the target. After you destroy it, it will be replaced by a harder to destroy target and you will repeat the process. Either destroy as many as you can or work your way through all ten targets. If you are unable to destroy all ten you will fail unless we decide that you still have potential. Now follow the instructors to the exam areas."


    Thus ended the first phase.

 Chapter 10. Entrance exams--part 2

    Slightly less than a hundred of the applicants decided to be tested on their support type abilities rather than the combat option. That left roughly two hundred applicants, who were then split into two groups and taken to different testing areas. Unfortunately the group I was placed into was the group with the nobles.


    We were led to an underground training area made of polished stone and about the size of a football field. Mana shields were used to make something like the lanes of a bowling alley, there were five lanes, one for each staff member with our group to observe. One of the staff spoke up to give us instructions.


    "You will stand at [this] end of the lane and your target will be placed at the other end. The mana shields should be enough to stop any attack you kids can throw out but the staff here can also erect emergency barriers as well, so no worries. If your first attack fails to destroy the target, the target will be replaced with a new one and you can try again, if your second attack fails to destroy the target you fail. Those who want to go first lign up."


    All of the commoners in our group were to scared to go before the nobles, and it seemed that the nobles were to scared to go before prince Bernard. So despite there being five lanes, Bernard went up alone. The staff didn''t show any signs of urging other applicants forward either.


    The floor at the far end of the lane opened up and the first target rose up. It was a bundle of straw shaped like a person. Bernard quick sent it to straw man afterlife with a fireball.


    The burnt remains of the first target were sucked back into the hole in the floor, and the second target appeared. The second target was a scarecrow, old clothes had been sewn together and stuffed. I could sense I small bit of magic from the clothing, if I had to guess I would say it had probably been made fire resistant. Bernard wasn''t entirely stupid because this time he went for a different attack, he held out his hand and with a brief chant in a language I didn''t recognize a small sphere of light appeared above his hand. He tossed it at the scarecrow and it passed through the clothing, once inside the entire thing began to glow before it all ripped apart at the seams, sending cloth and bits of straw everywhere.


    The third target was a wooden statue which was split into pieces by a bolt of lightning, the forth was a similar statue that had been enchanted but was similarly done in. Fifth and sixth were clay dummies (the sixth being an enchanted version) that were shattered by force explosions, seventh and eighth were statues made of stone (eighth being enchanted) that Bernard used water blades to slice appart. Ninth was a metal statue that Bernard was able to melt down with fire, and the tenth and final was an enchanted metal statue. This one was resistant to fire so Bernard had to use a combo attack, heating up the metal as much as he could and then attacking the slightly weakened hot metal with earth spikes to rip it apart.


    Bernard passed of course, and so the nobles stepped up to the plate. They to all managed to pass by copying what Bernard had done. The the commoners went, only about ten of the commoners were able to pass, and even then they still showed weaker attacks than what the nobles had used. I waited to be the very last, so now everyone''s attention on me, is what I wanted to say but most simply looked bored and ready to leave. Only the staff and Bernard were watching me with any interest.


    Stepping up to the lane alone I waited for the first target to appear. Even if it was just simple straw, I could still show off a bit. I held out my hand a summoned a small wisp of flame, no bigger than my thumb. The observers lost even more interest. What they didn''t know was that at the center of the wisp I had heated it up to super hot conditions, and was keeping it contained so that it could not be seen or felt.


    I threw the wisp of flame that seemed about to go out at the straw bundle. It slowly made its way down the lane, flickering all the way. But as soon as it touched the target the core was released, heat came rushing down the lane and washed over those standing there returning their attention to me. The straw had been instantly consumed by flame and now only smoldering ashes were left. I hadn''t got any dropped jaws yet, but all were watching with renewed interest.


    The second target, the scarecrow appeared. One of the commoners applicants had not realized from all that had gone before him that the scarecrow was enchanted and tried using a fireball on it, it not catching fire proved my suspicions that it was fire resistant. I decided to rip it appart with the improvised telekinesis I used for my flight magic. I wrapped my mana around different parts of the dummy and pulled in different directions, causing it to rip apart. Judging from the surprised looks would say most here couldn''t tell what I had done.


    The third target, the wooden statue. For this one I decided to try out something new.


    "[State of decay]"


    The wood rapidly turned black and flaked away, crevices formed as black mold ate away at the wood. Soon the entire statue became so rotten that it could not support itself and collapsed under its own weight.


    ""Ohh, ahhh...""If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    That got everyone a surprised, even Bernard had an expression of uncertainty.


    The fourth target, the enchanted wooden statue, I had determined was resistant to both fire and blunt force damage I had determined. For this one I converted the top layer of the stone floor in the room into fine sand, which I then sucked up into a vortex around the target. I used it like a sandblaster to chip away at the wood, every particle chipped away was added to the vortex, I kept spinning it faster and faster untill the entire statue had been reduced to fine particles. I decided to show some consideration for the academy and returned the sand to the floor and fused it back with the stone. More surprised sounds. You haven''t seen nothing''s yet kiddos. I was saving the best for last.


    For the clay non-enchanted dummy I formed a waterball the size of a beach ball over its head, from it I extended tendrils of water to reach out and rip it appart. For the enchanted version I shattered it with a blast of force energy.


    For the stone statues I had a hard time deciding what would be a good attack to destroy it. I finally decided on using a beam of light (laser) to destroy the first one and an earthquake inside the second one.


    The initial excitement everyone had shown was beginning to wear off. Sure I had surprised them with my above average strength, but I had yet to show them anything outside the realm of possibility. Well I was saving the best for last, they would be shocked and awed.


    The second to last statue I carved into pieces with water blades, something very difficult to do to solid metal, so that got back a bit of attention.


    The last target arrived, made of metal and with the strongest enchantments of any of the targets. The enchantments on this one were mostly focused on heat resistance, which was a testament to how skillful Bernard actually was, he had been able to heat up the metal enough to allow his earth spikes to dig into the solid metal. Most of the others were unable to get it hot at all.


    I started by layering heat resistant shields around myself, the staff seemed to notice what I was doing but made no comment. I next wrapped several heat resistant shields around the others. Eager to see what I did for the last attack, I had everyones attention.


    I began my attack. I raised my right hand above my head, I then started with a small wisp much like my first attack, but rapidly expanded it nearly three feet in diameter. I then began feeding it air, the flame shifted from red to yellow, through the shades of blue until it became a blinding white. Despite the heat shields I had put up around everyone, the intense heat could still be felt. I began to mold the shape, shifting it from a sphere into the form of a bird. A blazing white Phenix. Perfect.


    I accelerated the flame bird at the target at speeds nearing that of sound, creating a screaming noise. The bird impacted and spread white flame throughout, the mana shields used to separate the lanes shattered and a wall of flame approached us. I rapidly erected several more barriers throughout the room to stop it.


    The flame continued to burn throughout the far end of the room for nearly a minute after I stopped supplying mana to it. When it cleared no trace of the statue could be found other than a slight silvery puddle melted into the floor. The stone that made up that half of the room had all melted, the walls starting to sag and the ceiling having stalactites of stone hanging from the ceiling. I MAY have over done it just a bit.


    I turned to the others. Dumbfounded faces on all of them. The staff was the first to slightly recover.


    "Holy."


    "Fucking."


    "Shit."


    "Sooooo... Do I pass?" (Me)


    "Ya... I guess so..."


    I rapidly cooled down the room and filtered fresh air into the room.


    "I can fix that end of the room if you need me to." (Me)


    "Nah... We should probably study it later..."


    Yep they were still zoned out staring at the melted half of the room.


    "Should we go outside now?" (Me)


    "Ya..."


    The group shuffled out of the room and back into the field outside. Both of the other groups were waiting for us there. The headmaster was on the stage and began speaking to us.


    "We ask all those who failed this portion of the test to now leave. The staff will now meet and release the ranking list of those who passed the exams. Welcome to Othrode Academy!"


    While people who passed from the other groups were cheering at getting into the academy, the applicants now students were quiet. The headmaster seemed confused at the strange lack of reaction from our group.


    Those who failed left and the staff left us in the field by ourselves. All the nobles had passed the test so that was 23 people, plus the eleven from our group (including myself) was 34 passers, the other combat group had 42 passers, and the support group had 31 passers, which was a total of 107 new students.


    The staff and headmaster was gone for twenty minutes before they returned with a board listing the rankings of the new students. Number one... Ambrjrn Aldrich. Number two... Bernard Malfair.


    "Hey."


    A voice I really didn''t like came from nearby. It was the prince.


    "I was supposed to be number one at this exam."


    His twitching left eye told me that he was about to explode.


    "But I suppose that if that is the level that I was competing against... My father will understand why I got second place."


    He turned on his heel and walked off.


    WAT.


    I thought he was going to explode. But that bit about his father... Was him being so angery because he was afraid? Of his father? Not that that was an excuse for his behavior.


    The new students were running around congratulating each other. Surprisingly fourth place had gone to a talented commoner, who was now surrounded by group of other students congratulating him on his accomplishment. It didn''t take long for the others to figure out who made first place and a horde of students began to make their way towards me.


    """Congratulations!"""


    """How were you able to make first place!?"""


    """Could be my friend?"""


    """That last attack you did was incredible!"""


    I have never been a people person so this crowd was making me nervous. I was considering developing a invisibility spell when the crowd had to suddenly part because of a mage with flaming wings had just dropped down in the middle of them. It was Allen Firewood... Ahem... I mean Flamewood. Honestly how did whoever came up with their clan name not think of that?


    "Wow, you have really grown. And that last attack you threw really surprised me!"


    Wait... When did he see my last attack?

 Announcement

    First I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my story. I had fun writing this but now I was to try out something different.


    Let''s face it folks, books with this theme are a dime a dozen, and I don''t want to be ''summoned to another world writer #112230'', I want to write something unique.


    Here are my ideas for what I want.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    1. Ancient society. Almost every fantasy book is a medieval type society, so I want to try something along the lines of fantasy ancient Egypt or Greece. (If you know any books with something like that comment below cuz I would like to read.)


    2. Two persons in one body. I know it isn''t that uncommon in books, but I want to try working out a system where one controls the body and the other controls magic or something along those lines. I don''t remember seeing that in any of the books I have read. (Again, if you know something like I am describing tell me.)


    So be sure to check out my next book, and thanks again for all your support!